Claire

New Year's Day in Amsterdam is slow: shuttered cafés, swept pavements and a city sleeping off the night before. Claire likes the date for exactly that reason, and her bookings on the first of January usually begin in the early afternoon. She speaks French, German and English, which helps with the mixed groups of friends who stayed in town for the fireworks. Tantra and erotic oil suit the unhurried mood of the day, and she lets the guest set the pace rather than the clock. At twenty-six she names her limits in the first minute and they stay where she put them. New Year's Day still counts as part of the run from Christmas to New Year, so even a returning guest's same-day booking with her that afternoon carries half the fee ahead. From De Pijp she reaches a hotel along the Amstel or near the canal belt within forty to sixty minutes of the confirming reply, and the empty streets of the first of January rarely slow her down.

Claire 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.