Meredith strolled through the French Market looking for a sun hat. It was November and 78 degrees. She couldn’t stop thinking about the note she found next to her pillow this morning. 

“Are you predator or are you prey? Decide!”

Her phone buzzed it was Jim again. I should have never told him, she thought.

“I need you to come home now, or I will fly out there and get you,” Jim said.

“You don’t understand, this is about my brother. I have a lead,” she said. “Oh I like that one,” she said to the lady seated at the table. It was brown weave with a sunflower.

“In New Orleans, that’s unlikely. I just don’t know if we can continue like this and who are you talking to?”

“What do you mean?” she asked even though she had heard this all before. 

His insecurity blared through her phone. 
She felt that ache in her throat that she often got when having this conversation with him. 

“Are you seeing someone else?” he asked. “Is it Dan Okada?”

And there it was again. She was sleeping with any man she was friends with.

“No, Dan is like a brother to me. I have to go.”

She put her phone away, but Jim buzzed again. She just ignored it. He had no reason to doubt her, she had never cheated on him. She played by the rules of being the good socialite girlfriend and he fit her list of qualifications too. He was perfect on paper as her best friend Sylvia always said. Unfortunately that’s all he was. She prayed everyday, “God let me love him today.” But that prayer was never answered. Jim would not stop buzzing there was a voicemail and two angry texts.

As she turned and exited onto Ursuline Avenue she locked eyes with a stunning man grinning at her as if he was looking into her soul. She almost felt violated by his predatory eyes. She felt a jump in her stomach and turned away. The message from the morning ran across her mind.

“Are you predator or are you prey? Decide!”

She knew the answer. She was prey. But if she was to find her brother she had to be a predator. She turned back around and looked straight back at him. Her stomach ached, her face quivered. He dropped his smile and loosened his gaze. He nodded at her in approval as he stepped into the coffee shop across the street. How did he do that? He was so close how did he just appear across the street? Was he….a vampire?