Marnie looks like a lot of young professional businesswomen who come to New York City. She’s a petite and attractive woman in her early 30s, and has the bright and composed appearance of an exceptional secretary. In fact, that’s what she was before becoming a professional submissive. Today, Marnie is in a midtown hotel and enjoying her fourth day visiting from Los Angeles. It’s been a pretty good week for her, until now.
"I had a session yesterday," she explains, "but I canceled everything today. A friend of mine is going to be on national television for the first time, so I’m going to the taping today. I’m happy to be back in this hotel, though. I just checked back in here after spending a few days at another one that didn’t work out."
There’s an age-old complaint for any traveler. You arrive at a strange hotel and find it’s just not fit for doing business in. Though Marnie has specific concerns. "The rooms were really tiny in this other hotel. They were cute, but more like a dorm room. The lobby was like the size of this room here, and people had to be announced if they were visiting a room. Actually, the place was only like a hotel in that it had housekeeping and I didn’t live there. So I decided it was better to move the sessions I had booked to rented dungeons, or just reschedule them."
That’s a nice luxury for an independent agent who’s traveled across the country. Fortunately, Marnie’s specialty allows that kind of improvisation. "Renting a dungeon can cost up to $130 an hour. It’s basically like a cheap hotel room with equipment and cigarette smoke. I specialize in pretty simple spanking sessions, though. But the customer ends up paying the additional costs, so that’s bad. And I don’t like the cigarette smoke you can always smell in a dungeon. Hotel rooms are a lot sexier."
It’s also convenient that Marnie travels light. "Just whips and cuffs and stuff," she explains.
A girl in Marnie’s business usually changes hotels every few days to avoid staff noticing the parade of different men. It’s not likely that Marnie would draw much attention, though. She looks a lot different from most sex workers–particularly the submissive women in Manhattan’s dungeons. Marnie’s older. She’s also not sporting any ludicrous tattoos, and lacks the general demeanor of somebody just killing time before the next big Fischerspooner show.
"Strangely enough, there are fewer pro subs in New York than in Los Angeles," she explains. "I don’t know any of them here, but they all look beautiful in the pictures I’ve seen. Many of them are a lot younger than me, too. I can’t imagine doing this for a living and not being genuinely into the scene, so I have to assume that they’re into some aspect of what they do. I’d have to be on really hardcore drugs to be doing this and not liking it.
"I appeal to a very specific type of person," she goes on. "Most of my customers are married men who don’t want to risk their marriages, but their wives aren’t into that aspect of their sexuality. They still want to see somebody who’s mature, and outside of a dungeon setting. There are huge segments of the male dom community who’ll never see me as clients. I’m just not into what they are."
Marnie doesn’t come to Manhattan for the hipster club scene that’s full of her contemporaries. She pursues a different sort of local wild life. "I usually go out hunting for other people’s animals that I can pet. I like looking for cats in stores. I was staying up near Central Park a few days ago, so I’d go there to pet people’s dogs.
"If I work late, I’ll just go somewhere nice for dinner," she continues. "That’s better than going to clubs, fetish or otherwise. I don’t really do appearances at fetish clubs. I went to that restaurant–La Nouvelle Justine, or whatever it’s called–because I had an outcall session there with a mistress for a session party. That was the first time I came to New York. To be honest, we got a really cold reception there.
"I began coming to New York City because of that mistress. She was really kind to me for some reason, and she flew me up here and put me in a cute little sublet. She wanted me to know what it’s like to do sessions here. That was last August. I really fell in love with the city, so I started to just gamble on coming here and having enough appointments."
Most of those appointments are made through Marnie’s site, sub-merged.net. For this recent trip, she also tried local advertising.
"I put an ad this time in The New York Observer, but I don’t think anybody actually called me from that. Most people see me through Eros Guide or my website. I came on this trip knowing that I’d break even. And since I love coming here, that’s enough to make the trip worthwhile."
Maybe she’ll even avoid the need for private dungeons on her next trip here. Like many small businesswomen, though, Marnie can’t be too certain.
"I usually book [hotels] through Priceline," she explains, like a true sub, "so I just go wherever they put me."
