Laura, companion in Notting Hill

About Laura

The green eyes get mentioned first, always, and Laura long ago stopped pretending to be surprised by it. At 169 cm she is athletically built, by rowing rather than by any gym, and her long light brown hair is lightened at the ends by real sun. She dresses simply and well: a silk shirt, a long skirt, a coat that has plainly been cared for. She is rarely the most decorated woman in a room and almost always the most comfortable in it.

Her manner is open and steady. English, spoken plainly, and a laugh that arrives without warning and makes a whole table turn. She is interested in what people actually do all day and will keep asking until she understands it properly, which is disarming if you are used to being asked out of politeness. Film is her subject, the older ones especially, and she holds firm views about watching them anywhere other than in a proper room with other people.

Which is why a Notting Hill evening with her begins at the Electric Cinema on Portobello Road, in the armchairs at the back, with the lights going down at the right hour. Dinner comes afterwards rather than before, somewhere on Westbourne Grove where the kitchen is still awake at eleven. She lives in Paddington, ten minutes away, so she arrives early and knows the street before the crowds have found it.

The remainder is on the Notting Hill page, and each length is laid out at rates. One line to booking about your evening is enough.

• 169 cm, athletic, built by rowing rather than a gym
• Green eyes; long light brown hair, sun lightened
• Twenty five; plain spoken English and a sudden laugh
• Paddington based, ten minutes from Portobello Road
• Old films properly projected, then a late supper

Arranging her evening

Laura builds the evening around the screening, so Delphine will want the date rather than the hour and will fix the time once the programme is known. Four hours covers the film, dinner and the walk between them.

Her figures are the house figures, set out in full on the rates page, and the whole arrangement runs in one written exchange from the first line to the confirmation.

An evening with Laura

She arrives early enough to have opinions about the trailers. Laura takes the back row on principle, keeps her coat on for the first ten minutes, and says nothing at all once the film has started. If you speak during it she will answer you afterwards, politely, and at some length.

Supper is where she opens up. She is a natural asker of questions and a patient listener, and she has a habit of remembering the small detail you mentioned in passing and returning to it two courses later. By midnight Westbourne Grove has gone quiet and she likes to walk a little of it before deciding anything. The rest of the night is entirely in your hands, and she is comfortable with whichever way you take it.