Three languages, an Oud-Zuid address, and a preference for the evening a couple have deliberately kept clear of colleagues.

Ukrainian, Russian and English, and she makes no performance of moving between them. Twenty-eight, blonde, and precise about time in a way that two people working to an agenda tend to appreciate. The evenings she likes are the ones nobody from the office knows about, which on most trips is exactly one of them. She lives among the long quiet streets near the museums and crosses to the centre in a short ride. She decides what the hour holds, says it at the beginning, and it applies to both of you equally. Two hours with a therapist each is 1,440 euros, and she is asked for that arrangement about as often as for the shared hour.

Victoria 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.