Sonya, calm company from the Jordaan

Early evening, the lamps just on along the Prinsengracht, and Sonya is exactly on time without appearing to have rushed for it. She sits, takes a breath, and the day you have had begins to lose its grip somewhere between the first question she asks and the moment the drinks arrive. Nothing about her is hurried, and after a week of gate changes that turns out to be the thing you needed.

At 32 she is the most settled woman on the board, and the least interested in proving anything. She is 162 centimetres, athletic, with long straight dark brown hair and hazel eyes, and an understated evening elegance to how she dresses, which is to say you will not be able to describe what she wore and you will remember that she looked right.

Ballet is behind the way she moves and meditation behind the way she listens; both are long habits rather than recent enthusiasms, and neither gets mentioned unless you ask. Fragrance is the collection, shelves of it, chosen with the patience of somebody who will test one thing for a month before committing. Vanessa is the only other one who understands that kind of obsession.

The Jordaan is her part of town, a short walk to the canal hotels and an easy drive to anywhere else. Her English is careful and warm, and she is a genuinely good listener rather than a patient one, which is a different and rarer thing. Book Sonya for the night when you would rather be understood than entertained. She is also the easiest possible company for a dinner where you have nothing in particular to say, because she does not experience that as a problem in need of solving. Dinners and longer engagements are arranged on request, and the fare card covers everything else.

Time is the only thing her evening really needs. Sonya reaches the Prinsengracht exactly when she said she would and with no appearance of having rushed for it, sits, takes a breath, and the week starts losing its hold on you somewhere between her first question and the drinks arriving.

Dinner should be small and candlelit. She orders slowly and asks what the kitchen is proud of. There is ballet in how she crosses a room and years of meditation in how she listens, though she mentions neither unless you ask. Fragrance is the collection, tested a month at a time before anything is committed to. The night ends quietly, which is how she prefers it, and she is the easiest possible company on an evening when you have nothing much to report.