Clementine

In her own hours

Evenings have a particular hush after ten where Clementine works, and she belongs to it, unbothered by how late a booking runs or how early it begins.

Plain and expensive-looking, the way the whole neighbourhood dresses on a weeknight. She has the useful habit of leaving a silence alone rather than hurrying to fill it in. Her work is slow by choice - she would rather do less in ninety minutes than more in sixty - and she says so plainly while the booking is still being made. Available right through the night, and entirely comfortable being the one still there when the breakfast room downstairs opens up.

Clementine decides which bookings she takes and may decline any of them; she sets the limits for what a session includes, says what they are, and may end a visit at any point, as the terms set out.