The ride from the lobby to your floor lasts about as long as one sentence, and six companions with long black hair spend it in six different ways. The colour is shared: straight and black on Angelika, Danielle, Karolina and Milena, long on Roxi, sleek on Violetta. The first line is not shared at all, and it is a better guide to the evening than any photograph.
Angelika asks before the doors have closed and wants a real answer, a painting, a view, a remark overheard in a queue. Her afternoons go to the galleries of Savile Row and Cork Street and her evenings to Mayfair, where she lives, usually opening at the Rivoli Bar at The Ritz and drifting to a Soho jazz room if the talk allows. Athletic at 172 cm, confident, and playful once she has your measure.
Danielle's question follows a film, most often a restored print at BFI Southbank and then home over Waterloo Bridge while the water shines on either side. She listens to the whole answer. Her evenings start at nine at the earliest and suit three hours or the full night. Curvy, 170 cm, and the one to ask for when the day has been loud.
Karolina lets the lift stay quiet, and the silence is restful rather than awkward. Her sentence comes later, dry and exact, often about a cornice you walked straight past. For English National Opera at the Coliseum, book her four hour dinner date at £900, since the tickets need a few days of warning, whereas a simple weeknight visit near Covent Garden can usually be placed on the day.
Milena answers before the question is finished. If your plan is good she says so, and if hers is better she explains it in two sentences, somewhere around the third floor. Tall and curvy at 175 cm, she agrees quickly, which makes a same evening visit realistic, and the full ten hour night, breakfast in the room at the end, suits her as well as anyone. Her local is the Ampersand in South Kensington.
Roxi has a recommendation ready before you reach your corridor. She boxes at dawn near Victoria, surfs whenever the forecast allows, and likes late arrivals at hotels in Belgravia. Ahead of an early flight she will gladly pass the evening at a Gatwick hotel, where the three hour airport minimum of £700 applies with travel included.
Violetta, 178 cm and very still, opens with a question about hotels and closes with a dry joke you will be repeating for weeks. Her evening tends to begin on the five floors of Waterstones on Piccadilly and move to The Berkeley in Knightsbridge for dinner. She prefers the four hour booking and likes to know the restaurant beforehand.
Talkers: Angelika and Roxi. Listeners: Danielle and Karolina. Deciders: Milena and Violetta. Any of the six suits a night out that finishes at the last lift. Four of them also stand on the statuesque list, and Danielle, Milena and Roxi appear among the curvaceous companions.
Choose from this list by name, or write two lines about the evening, and the desk offers whoever is on shift.
