Just like at the beginning

The now-clean office was filled with the lingering smell of sour champagne, shoe polish, and sweat. The silence was heavy, broken only by the ragged breathing of Magi, Lara, and Cloe. Still naked, stained, and trembling, they looked at each other with a shared shame that united them in a miserable pact of silence. Lara’s arms still burned from the effort of rubbing the desk with her own thong soaked in polish. Magi and Cloe's hands were red and scraped by the rough towels, and the damp floor reflected their degradation back at them.

May broke the silence. Without a word, he opened a closet and took out the clothes. They weren't their uniforms, nor their own clothes. They were the very outfits of humiliation from the evening. He threw the faux leather skirt and the bra at Magi’s feet. The mesh set fell in front of Lara. He tossed Cloe the top and those tiny, form-fitting shorts that left nothing to the imagination.

"Put them on," he ordered, not looking directly at them, as if he were disposing of trash. "The show is over."

As Magi put on the faux leather skirt, she felt the cold, rough material against her skin, which was still sensitive from the aquarium water and the scrubbing. There was no underwear to cushion the contact; it was the same raw feeling of vulnerability she had experienced cleaning the floor on her knees, but now exposed to the world. When she put on the bra, the little chains bit into her skin where the rough towels had already irritated it.

Lara dressed in the mesh set, she felt the fabric dig into the same spots where the polish had dried, creating an uncomfortable crust under the transparent mesh. Every movement reminded her of the grotesque caress of the rag on the wood, now replicated by the chafing of the mesh on her stained skin.

Cloe put on the shorts, she felt the tight fabric stick to her bruised knees, which were still sore from scrubbing the floor. It was as if the humiliation of the cleaning had not ended, but had adhered to her skin under a new layer of shame.