Jasmin, companion in Heathrow Terminal 4

Terminal 4 sits on its own on the south side and behaves differently from the rest of the airport, which is why Jasmin knows it best. Petite, 160 cm, with chestnut brown hair worn long and straight and brown eyes that go straight to yours, she has the useful knack of looking rested at an hour when nobody else does. Early twenties. Soho is her London, all noise and short distances, and she treats the trip out here as a change of weather rather than a chore.

She is quick, in conversation and in temperament. Jokes land early, then she settles and listens properly, and she copes beautifully with people who have just spent seven hours in a middle seat and cannot yet form a sentence. English comes out of her fast and warm. She will take the lead for the first twenty minutes if you need her to, and hand it back once you have caught up with yourself.

The hotel at TW6 3AF is joined to Terminal 4 by a walkway, which on this side of the runway is a genuine luxury: you do not go outside, you do not queue for a car, you arrive and you are there. She will meet you in the lobby or come straight up. A word of honesty about T4: the station shuts early, there is no night service at this terminal, and after about eleven the way out is a car around the southern perimeter to Hatton Cross or beyond.

Her southern terminal evenings are gathered on Heathrow Terminal 4. If you are inbound, send a flight number instead of an hour and the desk will hold the slot. Booking explains how a late arrival is put together.

Late landings are her speciality and she has the timing down to the minute. She leaves town when the aircraft is an hour out, so she is at the hotel while you are still walking the corridor towards passport control. By the time you get upstairs the kettle has boiled and the room does not feel like a room you have just been handed.

Then she slows everything down on purpose. A drink, the shoes off, the story of the flight told badly and laughed at. She has no interest in dragging a tired man out to look at anything, and she will say so. Terminal 4 goes quiet after midnight in a way the rest of the airport never does, and she thinks that is the best thing about it.