“Open up, Tandy. I refuse to let you leave until you’ve had your proper caloric intake. How the hell are you going to build muscle if you don’t give your body fuel?”

“A month ago, Leek put me on eight hundred calories a day for two weeks.”

“A month ago, you were working for the cut. We’re not working for the cut right now, Tandy. We’re going for bulk.”

She sighed but obeyed. After she swallowed, she said, “All this back-and-forth. One minute I feel like a pig, the next minute I’m starving myself.”

“Hey, are you going to let your body control you, or are you going to control your body?”

She was silent.

“Know what I’m saying, Tandy?”

“I know. Rest assured I’m in total control.”

“No one said this was easy. You want easy, don’t come here. Go to the Golden Hotshot Spa and pay a million dollars a day to do it all wrong.”

“I’m not looking for easy, Mack.” She licked her lips. “I’ve never looked for easy. Easy is unhealthy. Maybe it is my work. My other work. I do so much, and no one ever says anything. They take me for granted.”

“The docs, too?”

“No, the docs love me. They know I’m great. It’s the people I work with…the nurses…the head nurses.”

“They’re just jealous, Tandy. They can’t stand the fact that you know more. Probably galls them that you look so good, too.”

She nodded.

Mack presented her with another spoonful. “So don’t pay any attention to them, okay? They’re just laying a trip on you.”

“Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to work.”

“So move in with me or Leek or Eric. We have group grunts. They really get the competitive spirit going.” He paused. “We could set you up with some easy nursing clients. No bureaucracy and lots of side benefits.”

Right, Tandy thought. She knew all about the side benefits à la Leek. Penny-ante stuff. Such mundane fools. “Not for me. But thanks for the offer.”

“Welcome. Open.”

She swallowed the puree. It tasted like gritty soup.

“Besides, my work is important, Mack. People rely on me. I just don’t get any appreciation from the people I work with.”

“Like I said, they’re jealous.”

“But my patients…I’m really important to them.”

“I can dig it.”

“The doctors don’t have the time. It all falls on the nurses.”

Mack began scraping the sides of the container. “People at the hospital ever notice how good you look?”

Tandy twitched. He didn’t understand. Talking to Mack was like talking to wood. But at least he was real. She knew that much.

“Uniforms hide a lot.”

“Uniforms hide these?”

He squeezed her breasts. She yelped with pain.

“God, don’t do that! I’m so sore.”