#Sold girl town purple windows#

Delvey вЂ¦вЂќДЄnna was preparing to launch a business, a Soho HouseвЂ“ish type club, she told Neff, focused on art, with locations in L.A., London, Hong Kong, and Dubai, and Neff became her de facto secretary, organizing business lunches and dinners at restaurants like SeamoreвЂ™s and the hotelвЂ™s own Le Coucou. вЂњYou know how Rihanna walks out with wineglasses? That was Anna.

вЂњ Fight, because you knew you were getting $100.вЂќ Over time, Delvey got more and more comfortable in the hotel, swanning around in sheer Alexander Wang leggings or, occasionally, a hotel robe. вЂњPeople would fight to take her packages upstairs,вЂќ said Neff. And despite her unassuming figure - вЂњa sort of Sound of Music FrГ¤ulein,вЂќ one acquaintance later put it - Anna quickly established herself as one of 11 HowardвЂ™s most generous guests. More like she was some kind of old-fashioned princess whoвЂ™d been plucked from an ancient European castle and deposited in the modern world, although according to Anna she came from modern-day Germany and her father ran a business producing solar panels. She could be oddly ill-mannered for a rich person: Please and thank you were not in her vocabulary, and she would sometimes say things that were вЂњNot racist,вЂќ Neff said, вЂњbut classist.вЂќ (вЂњWhat are you bitches, broke?вЂќ Anna asked her and another hotel employee.) But to Neff, it didnвЂ™t come across as mean-spirited. Some of the other hotel employees found Anna deeply annoying.

SheвЂ™d bring food down, or a glass of extra-dry white wine, and settle near NeffвЂ™s desk to chat. But February became March, and Delvey kept showing up. Usually, these guests went back to their own lives, leaving Neff to hers. вЂњYou just sit there and listen, because thatвЂ™s your concierge life,вЂќ she recalled recently, at a coffee shop near her apartment in Crown Heights. Since sheвЂ™d started working there, Neff, a Washington, D.C., native with a wedge of natural hair, giant Margaret Keane eyes, and a gap-toothed smile, had found herself playing therapist to all manner of hotel guests: husbands cheating on their wives, wives getting away from their husbands. вЂњThis is not a guest that needs my help,вЂќ it dawned on her. Eventually, Neff realized: Delvey already knew all the cool places to go - not only that, she knew the names of the bartenders and waiters and owners. Purple was totally washed and Vandal was for hipsters, while DelveyвЂ™s eyes would flit around behind her glasses. Over the next few weeks, Delvey stopped by often to ask NeffвЂ™s advice, slipping her $100 each time.

#Sold girl town purple windows#

Delvey was booked into a Howard Deluxe, one of the hotelвЂ™s midrange options, about $400 a night, with ceramic sculptures on the walls and oversize windows looking onto the bustling streets of Soho. But Neff checked the system, and there it was. SheвЂ™d be staying at the hotel for a month, she went on, which Neff also found surprising: Usually it was only celebrities who came for such long stretches. вЂњWhatвЂ™s your name?вЂќ Neff asked, after the girl waved off her suggestions of Carbone and the Mercer Kitchen and settled on the ButcherвЂ™s Daughter. She was looking, she said in an accent that sounded European, for вЂњthe best food in Soho.вЂќ She had a heart-shaped face and pouty lips surrounded by a wild tangle of red hair, her eyes framed by incongruously chunky black glasses that Neff, an aspiring cinematographer with an eye for detail, identified as CГ©line. Looking up, Neffatari Davis, the 25-year-old concierge, who goes by вЂњNeff,вЂќ was surprised to see the cash had come from a young woman who seemed to be around her age. A crisp $100 bill slipped across the smooth surface of the mid-century-inspired concierge desk at 11 Howard, the sleek new boutique hotel in Soho. It started with money, as it so often does in New York.