Blair

In the margin

The first genuinely cold week reaches De Pijp with the awnings still out and nobody ready for it, and Blair treats that week as the opening of her year. Two questions go into the thread before an hour is agreed, both of them about the room: what the heating actually does, and whether the windows seal. The answers change what goes into her bag. Romanian and English, used plainly and never to fill a gap. Twenty-seven, and entirely unbothered by a guest who arrives from the street soaked through and apologising for it.

Blair 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.