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The girl shakes her head. “This is my first time here.”
“Sorry,” I tell her. “You need a card. Or you can come back after 4 o’ clock today when Theo Grimshaw, the owner, is back.”
The girl looks disappointed. “It’s my best friend’s birthday tonight. I really need to get her something special. I won’t have time to come again later.”
I give her a regretful look.
“Please,” she says. “It’s her twenty-third, her first birthday since we moved to London. I can give you my name and address if that helps? I’m India Lawrenson.” She fumbles inside her bag for her ID.
Just then a tug at my jeans makes me look down. Mozz has appeared behind the counter where she had not been before, her toddler height preventing India from seeing her. With her bouncy black curls and her solemn blue eyes, she is a sweet little bundle of huggable cuteness. She nods at me and gives India a thumbs up. I squash my instinct to beam at her and tousle her adorable head. Best not to give her presence away. Theo likes for Mozz to stay well away from strangers. Mozz toddles off, disappearing into thin air quite suddenly.
“Actually, I might be able to help you after all,” I tell India. “Let me just take down your details first.”
She gratefully hands over her passport and a utility bill.
“Do you take these with you everywhere?” I ask out of curiosity.
“I’m new to London,” she says. “Been here a few months and I’ve needed a proof of address so often in the first couple of weeks that I got used to carrying them around.”
“I’m new too. Just over two months for me.” I notice the address on her utility bill. “Hey, you live on my road!” I exclaim in delight.
“Really?” She looks equally delighted. “Isn’t Notting Hill great? Crazy expensive though. Right?”
“Tell me about it. I have this studio, just one room — like a bedroom with a kitchenette in it — and you wouldn’t believe the rent.”
“No way! Us too!” she screeches. “And do you have a weird shower cubicle all in the same room?”
“Yes!” I find myself also screeching and grabbing hold of her hand in sympathy. “I hate it, but I kinda love it because otherwise I’d have to use the shared bathrooms.” I shudder at the prospect.
“Tell me about it. But at least it’s just you. I’m sharing with Rachel, my friend whose birthday is today. It’s a bit squashy. We’re from the countryside so it’s come as a bit of a shock.”
“I’ve been wondering about couples and whether they have showers while the other is in the room,” I tell her. “Not that I’m prying. You don’t have to tell me.”
“Yeah, we do,” she admits, laughing. “But Rachel’s my foster sister and we grew up together so it’s no big deal.”
I try not to make a face. The intimacy of showering naked around people is not for me. But perhaps that’s because I can’t ever imagine explaining my creepy born-with-it fused-to-my-flesh navelstone to anyone. Not even a foster sister.
I look at India with interest. She is fostered. I had been adopted and ended up living with people who hated me. I wonder if India and Rachel’s experience was similar to mine. They’re lucky to have each other.
“Does your landlord live in your house too?” India says. “Ours lives on the top floor. Skeezy git. He’s got a pad up there to himself but he still likes to share the showers with the tenants.”
I grimace. “At least I don’t have to deal with that.”
I put my pen and logbook away, and walk out from behind the counter. “You can come this way.”
I march straight through the non-existent wall. She takes a few moments to follow me through, her hands stretched out before her as if to make sure the wall really is not there. I grin when she emerges on the other side, inside the hidden room, looking astonished.
“You look like I felt my first time,” I tell her.
“Wow. I’ve heard about magic and I know it’s real and everything, but when you actually see it, it’s crazy,” she says. “Gosh. Do I sound like a country bumpkin to you?”
“You sound how I feel. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but aren’t you a werewolf? Aren’t you used to this kind of thing?”
The smile fades from her face and now she looks a little wary. “How did you know?”
“Sorry. I just took a guess. I think you smelled my cat before you saw her.”
“You’re perceptive. I suppose you have to be, working in a magic shop and all?”
