I chuckled with ties and dress shirts in hand, making final packing decisions inside my walk-in closet. “What do you have, ESP?”

“No, I just know that you’re going back out of town tomorrow.”

I had told Judi all about it, especially since the campaign was to support efforts, research, and awareness on lung cancer.

I asked, “You have a shoot this week as well, right, out in L.A.?”

“Yeah, and I hate L.A.,” she told me. Of course she would say that. Los Angeles pushed all the things she was now against. But at the end of the day, she still had to pay the bills.

I told her, “L.A. and Miami have a lot of things in common if you asked me. They’re both warm-all-year climates, they both like to flaunt their wealth, and they both cater to celebrities.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how long I want to stay in Miami either.”

I hated to admit it to her, but Judi didn’t seem too satisfied with her life. Maybe Danni was right, something was going on with her that was causing her to lash out at everything that seemed normal.

“Let me ask you something, Judi, because I’m getting really curious about this.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Ah…what is it exactly that would make you happy? I mean, because I listen to you, and you make sense and everything, but at the end of the day, what the hell is the point? It just seems like you have all complaints and no joy.”

I said, “We all live to want things, to want to do things, to want to show off a little bit. That’s what creates the challenge of life. So if you take all of that away…”

“I’m not telling you to take everything away. I’m just saying you need to have more of a purpose with it.”

“Well, what’s the purpose in a rich guy having a two-hundred-thousand-dollar Ferrari, Judi? To show off his wealth, right? You think he doesn’t know that? You think he doesn’t know that other people can’t afford a Yugo? I mean, I just don’t get it. People do what they do because they’re alive and they want to.”

I had Judi silent for a minute. That’s when I wondered about her physical and sexual health. Was she suffering from a disease? How did diseased people react mentally and socially? Was she showing signs of it through her depressing theories about life? How exactly would I even start that conversation with her?

Finally, she said, “You’re not getting me, Terrance. You’re totally not getting me.”

“Well, that’s obvious. And I’m starting to think something’s wrong with you.”

I had picked several shirts and ties and spread them out across the bed. I was going with yellows, browns, beiges, and hints of black. Cancer was a sentimental issue that was serious business, so I tried to stay close to earth tones with black as a solid foundation color.

Judi said, “Wait a minute. You’re starting to think that something’s wrong with me? What do you mean by that?”