Lola thought she was all out of miracles, but life might have some magic for the invisible girl yet...
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It's been fifteen years since a wayward spell turned Lola Lawrence invisible. She might have learnt to control the magic but life isn't any ea...
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It's early morning when I wander into the office of 'Holden Investigations', the sun rising above the silver puzzle pieces of the London skyline. The office is empty, just row after row of empty desks and the faint buzz of electricity. It's a generic glass and white-walled space, lined with fake hanging plants and chosen for its inoffensive-to-the-elite postcode and the view George Holden gets from his corner office. Siobhan, George's PA, is wiping her glasses when I walk in, her desk is the first one you come to once you walk inside the glass doors. She narrows her sleepy eyes when she sees me. It takes me a moment to remember I'm visible again, I barely have to think about it now. The magic moves through me as easily as breathing. I'm invisible when I need to be, visible when I don't.
"What the hell are you doing here at this unnatural hour?" She growls and I laugh, tugging my hair off my shoulder and yawning.
"Me. I've just finished a job. Figured I do all the paperwork here before heading home. What about you?"
She snorts, inclining her head towards George's office. The glass is frosted, but I can see the fuzzy outlines of people in there. I frown. The hour is crazy early. Who the hell would George see for a 6 am meeting?
"His lordship couldn't possibly make coffee for himself. I'm not even sure he knows how to turn the machine on."
I giggle. George is a dinosaur. He's the sort of guy who probably had a woman do everything from cooking his meals to washing his socks from the moment he was born to the moment his long-suffering wife Emma left him last year. Now he's as helpless as a newborn lamb about anything other than investigative work. Siobhan is possibly the highest-paid person in the office, except George himself. She threatens to leave at least once a year unless she gets an increase. And she gets it. Every time. He might be helpless, but he knew it at least.
The glass door to his office is thrown open, making me and Siobhan jump.
A golden-haired woman, her full lips curved into a wide smile, is staring at me. She's wearing an outfit that would look ridiculous on anyone who wasn't so beautiful. All whites and creams and practically begging for a coffee stain. The clothes are cut close to a body that is somehow both lean and curvaceous. She looks faintly familiar, but I can't place her. I'm suddenly very aware I haven't showered in almost two days and probably have Dorito crumbs in my hair.
"It's you!"
Siobhan gazes up at me from her desk, her eyebrow lifted to her forehead.
"Ummm..."
"You're Laura Tomkins, right?" I smile weakly. When I'd taken the job at 'Holden Investigations', I'd insisted on using a fake name. George had discovered me by accident - our paths had crossed when we'd found ourselves tracking down the same person, admittedly for very different reasons. I got a new career, and that first job is still the only one I've never been able to close. I'd taken the job, and joined the agency but anyone other than George knew me as Laura. And no one, not even him, had figured out why I could get into places no one else could. Invisibility has its perks.
