Banks

The staircases here were built for people carrying nothing. Up two flights at two in the morning, and Banks begins flat-handed, coat still over the chair. Pressure is added and never taken back, the way a sculptor adds mass instead of carving it away. Doors along these canals are slow to answer and she is patient with every one of them. Bookings run long, ninety minutes or two hours or until the windows go grey, because a line once found is not one she will hurry.

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.

She works outcall across central Amsterdam, most often around Jordaan, and she does not keep a studio. Sessions run from a single hour to the eight-hour overnight.