One companion, two guests, and an evening agreed by both of you

Either works, but the desk will want to hear from both of you before it confirms anything. A single line from the second person is enough. It is not a formality: an evening booked by one half of a couple and sprung on the other goes badly for everybody, including the companion, and Hester has seen enough of them to ask every time.

What she needs is the hotel, the date, the hour, the length and a short note about what the two of you actually want from the evening. Plain language is better than hints.

A drink downstairs first, almost always. Three people who have not met need somewhere neutral to start, and a hotel bar does that job better than a room does. Then dinner, and then whatever the three of you agreed when the booking was made.

A good companion for this booking is one who can hold a conversation between two people who already know each other very well, which is a harder trick than it sounds and is the main reason the names below are the names below.

The airport hotels at the far end of the perimeter and out past the county line suit this better than the ones you can walk to from a gate. They are quieter, the bars stay open later than the road outside would suggest, and nobody in them is paying the slightest attention to anybody else.

Hayes is the other sensible answer: eight minutes from the central terminals on the train, rooms that cost less, and a town that is entirely uninterested in who is staying in it.

Everything is agreed before she arrives, in the chat, in plain words. Nothing is negotiated in the room. If one of you changes their mind during the evening, say so and the evening changes; the booking is time and company, and that is all it ever was.

She is a guest for the hours you booked, not a subject of a conversation between the two of you. Guests who understand that get much better evenings than guests who do not.

Nancy is thirty, completely unflappable, and the most experienced of the five at an evening with two guests. Thea is warm and direct and will say what she thinks; she is back in the first week of October. Danielle is composed and leaves pauses where other people reach for filler, which suits a table of three.

Vanessa takes short notice better than most out here. Luna is playful, impossible to embarrass, and very good with a guest who arrives nervous, which on this booking is usually at least one of the two. The rest are in the hall, and by tag sorts them by hair, build and age if that helps you agree between yourselves.

Several days, please, and more if you want a particular name. The desk confirms back to both of you before the evening is held. Her fee is handed to her in person when she arrives, in the first minute, and nothing goes near your hotel bill. The booking page sets out the whole exchange.