Daisy

In her own hours

A soft knock, almost nothing said in the corridor, and then a room a good deal warmer than it was a minute before. English carries her through the evening.

Narrow stairwells, late lifts, rooms above water where the street noise arrives already softened - the middle of the city suits Daisy exactly. Everything she needs travels in a plain bag that reads as luggage rather than equipment, and she dresses for the building she is walking into. For a first booking she suggests ninety minutes; for a second, she tends to suggest considerably more than that. The longer bookings she keeps for the evenings when nobody at all is watching the clock, which is most of them.

Daisy 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.