Banks

Banks keeps a flat in the Jordaan and treats a Schiphol booking as a question of arithmetic first: when the next boarding call falls, how long the ride out takes, and what is left once both are subtracted. Tantra is the format she offers a traveller who has slept badly over an ocean, because it is paced on breathing rather than on a clock. French and English are both in use with guests, and at twenty-four she switches between them without a pause. Dark hair, a small bag, and her limits stated plainly before the curtains are drawn.

Banks 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.