May takes them.

"My car is outside, in the front parking lot," May said, his voice a mere statement of fact. "I'll take you home. One by one. It's not a favor; it's an extension of the service."

He led them out through the back door. The night was cold, and the breeze instantly raised goosebumps on her bare skin, feeling the rough touch of the fabric directly on her bare skin. The walk to May's luxurious sedan involved crossing a stretch of poorly lit parking lot—but not poorly enough. Not only was a security camera panning toward them; a group of three maintenance employees, with dirty overalls and tools in hand, stopped dead in their tracks as they passed. One of them let out a low whistle, another's jaw dropped, and the third didn't hide a mocking grin. May didn't even acknowledge them; to him, they were just part of the scenery of humiliation.

May opened the back car door.

"Get in." The order was simple.

The drive was a silent ordeal. The car’s air conditioning chilled their skin. The first stop was Lara's. May parked right under the light of a streetlamp, directly in front of her building. He rolled down the window.

"Get out," he told her. "And don't waste time."

Lara got out of the car, feeling the streetlamp's yellow light bathe her body and the mesh skirt cling to her legs, revealing her shape obscenely. From a balcony, someone whistled. She ran toward her building's door, feeling the cold, dirty pavement under her bare feet and the unblinking gaze of the maintenance employees, still watching from a distance, burning itself into her memory.

He repeated the ritual with Cloe, deliberately parking in front of a small 24-hour convenience store where a group of young people was just coming out. They looked her up and down, letting out guffaws and vulgar comments when she stumbled on the sidewalk in her haste to escape, the shorts revealing everything with her movement.

Finally, he took Magi to her apartment. He parked and turned off the engine. He didn't open the door right away. He turned slightly toward her from the driver's seat.

"I hope you've learned a lesson tonight," he said, his voice low but clear in the darkness of the car. "Your dignity is a luxury that I decide when you can afford." He paused, letting the weight of his words settle on her. "And remember, Magi... you still owe me a favor. A big one. This..."—he made a vague gesture toward her half-naked body and toward the outside—"was just work." Then he opened the door. "Out."

Magi got out, feeling the cold pavement under her bare feet. An older neighbor taking out the trash froze, looking at her with a mixture of shock and reproach. But now, the physical humiliation was mixed with the cold terror of the pending debt. Magi ran toward her door, searching for her keys in a nonexistent pocket, feeling that her life in that building had been ruined forever and that the shadow of May and his "favor" was now longer and darker than the night itself.