Cora

December evenings in Amsterdam are dark by five, and the light festival fills the early hours of that darkness with visitors on foot and on tour boats. Cora takes bookings after the route has been walked, usually from nine onwards, and she arrives knowing the guest has been outdoors for hours. She speaks Croatian and English, both in the same even tone. Body to body and sensual massage are the formats she offers on those nights, and the warmth of the room does part of the work. At twenty-four she is clear from the first minute about what the session will and will not include.

Cora 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.