How Does An Escort Find A Boyfriend?

Hint: It’s Not Easy

- Tim Struby 

It was a balmy August night in New York City and Maggie couldn’t recall the last time she’d felt butterflies. In a strappy blue dress, DKNY tennis sneakers and her brown hair in a ponytail, she’d walked the 14 blocks from her apartment to the north end of Union Square, where she began scanning the crowd. It didn’t take long to find Rich. Sitting on a bench in jeans and a paisley shirt, Rich, a graphic designer, looked just like he had in his pictures: dark spiked hair, angular features, a preternaturally youthful 32-year-old. Maggie waved. He smiled. As they set off to grab a drink, the chemistry was as immediate and intense as it had been on the phone for the past week. When they got to the wine bar, he opened the door for her, wiped down the table. Compared to her last relationship—two months with a self-absorbed photographer—Rich was a thrilling breath of fresh air.

Yet even as they talked and laughed effortlessly, Maggie knew that no matter the connection, her career would be an issue. After a very religious middle-class childhood in the Bay Area, Maggie became a high-end provider, a.k.a. an escort, a sex worker—someone who charges upward of $1,000 an hour for services. The 30-year-old vegetarian is a classic beauty, an astrology-obsessed empath and she is unwaveringly proud of her profession. But as the fight for sex-work legalization builds momentum, she and her fellow providers face a more personal, constant struggle: dating, relationships and love.