Samanta, dinner in the old banking hall

Samanta has the bearing of someone who has stood on a concert platform, and she has. Slim, 174 cm, dark brown hair worn long and smooth past the shoulders. Her eyes are brown, her manner composed. She dresses in noir elegance: a black column dress, a fine chain at the collarbone, a tailored coat that looks severe until she laughs. She is still, precise and hard to look away from.

Elegant and composed, she has a magnetism that comes from paying close attention. She asks exact questions and remembers the answers. English is her language, though she is always learning another, with a grammar book in her bag and a habit of trying new words on waiters. She has played the violin since childhood. Her private pleasure is design hotels: she studies lobbies the way other people study menus. Her handwriting is beautiful and her texts are short.

Her Bank evening is dinner at The Ned, the former Midland Bank headquarters on Poultry, where several restaurants share the vast old banking hall among its green stone columns. She loves the building as much as the food. She chooses the table, suggests the wine and points out details of the Lutyens design between courses. She is always the one who remembers where the cloakroom is. Afterwards the City is empty and silent, and the walk to any hotel near Bank takes only minutes.

Samanta lives in Mayfair and asks only that the plan is settled by 3pm. A Bank and Monument dinner goes through booking, and the dinner date sits with the other lengths on rates.