Bettie Fitzpatrick

Nobody expects the pause that arrives when someone finally calls her bluff — Bettie sets down whatever she is holding, looks at that person properly for the first time all meeting, and smiles as though they have just passed something. She bluffs constantly and gently: the budget is fine, the colour was always going to work, no she did not stay up until three redrawing the floor plan. Forty-six, an interior designer who can make a room feel inevitable, and a colleague who notices everything. The leather and the years of yoga are the same discipline in two shapes. Talking to Bettie feels like being chosen deliberately, and told so in a voice that leaves no room to argue.