Naya

An hour has a shape for Naya, and the part of it she will not compress is the last. Noise belongs in the street and never comes up the stairs with her.

She chose a loud corner to live on precisely because the flat above it is silent, and she has never once carried the street indoors. Her manner is formal at the start and warmer as the hour goes on, and she reads which of her three languages a client wants without asking. The patience tantric work asks for is the sort she already had, so she gave up every other sort. Two- and three-hour bookings fill most of her evenings, and travel is possible when there is time to plan it.

Naya 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.