The girlfriend experience: the ease of a second date, on the first

Length first: two hours is the natural minimum for this, three if you want dinner as well. Then the setting: your room, the quay, a restaurant, or all three in turn. Then one line about you, such as whether you have been talking all day and want to listen, or listening all day and want to talk. Philippa passes it on word for word, so the companion who arrives has already met your evening halfway.

The Isle of Dogs suits this kind of evening. From the hotels on South Quay it is a short stroll to Millwall Dock, where dinghies rest on flat water, and on to The Gun at Coldharbour for a drink with the O2 glowing across the river. Further south, Island Gardens opens onto the view every painter of the river has tried, and the foot tunnel runs underneath to Greenwich and the masts of the Cutty Sark on the far side. In summer the light lasts past nine and the loop can fill an hour without anyone noticing; in winter the same route is shorter and ends somewhere with a fire.

For a gentler version, head west to Limehouse. Narrow Street follows the river past converted wharves, the basin is lined with narrowboats and cruisers, and the white tower of St Anne's keeps watch over all of it. Two hours here can hold a drink at The Grapes, a turn around the moorings and the short ride back to the towers, with conversation doing most of the work.

Not every version goes out. After a week of client dinners, some guests want the reverse: room service for two, a film chosen together, the lights of the estate filling the window and a conversation that wanders wherever it likes. Three hours at £700 suits that evening well, and the absence of a restaurant bill makes it no less of a date. Say in your message that you would rather stay in, and she arrives in something comfortable rather than something for a dining room.

It is not a script, and nobody plays a part. She will not pose as your partner in front of colleagues or message you between bookings. What makes the evening feel familiar is simpler than that: attention, humour and unhurried time, given without anyone keeping score.

Rosa bakes, collects records and loves an afternoon that turns into supper; she is 160 cm with long chestnut curls. Laura, green-eyed and outdoorsy, says yes to anything with a view and can often manage the same day, from noon onward. Lea, petite with auburn waves, is warm and quick and happiest midweek. Cindy, blonde and blue-eyed, likes a booking that starts in daylight and drifts into the evening, and rarely puts her film camera away. See the petite and blondes pages for more.

Warmth is not a surcharge, and it does not change the rules. The fee is whatever the ladder says for your chosen length, you pay no fare for her journey inside Zones 1 and 2, and every boundary she keeps is hers to keep. Courtesy runs both ways, which is most of what makes the evening easy. If it is going well, ask before the time is up to extend it; if her night has room, you pay only the step to the next length. The booking page sets out how.