Rita

Years of close listening have given her an ear for what people mean rather than what they say, and she will not ask three questions where one will do. Italian is still the language of her jokes and her temper; English is where she is careful and rather formal. The canal belt is her ground, hotels, apartments, the late end of the night, and twenty-seven years have left her unbothered by any of it. The work itself is warm and thorough, weight carried low through the forearms, gel applied generously enough that the hour moves as one uninterrupted thing.

Rita 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.