Chapter 1

Matt got to the bar at about 8:30 on Friday evening. Normally on Fridays he would get off work at about 5 and meet some friends and co-workers for happy hour to start the weekend. He was the finance manager at his bank and usually had pretty regular hours. This Friday though, he had to get a report ready to send to the SEC on Monday. His boss, the bank manager, told him that if he finished it today he would review it over the weekend, they could make any changes on Monday and send it out to meet the government deadline. It took longer than he expected to gather all the financial data, so he didn’t get away until late.

It was a bar & grill called the Evangeline Lounge. It was well off the New Orleans French Quarter, so it wasn’t a place the tourists knew. Which was part of its appeal to Matt. At 8:30 the Lounge was in the lull in between Happy Hour and the Friday night party crowd. That was fine with Matt. He was tired and wanted a beer and something to eat. The bar had only a half dozen people there, so there were several open seats. He selected on that had an open seat on one side and an older woman sitting on the other. He asked her if the seat was taken and that’s when he got a good look at her. She was unattractive, to say the least. Easily in her fifties, with coarse skin, a hooked nose, a couple of prominent warts and ragged dark hair. She wore a black dress that was loose on her scrawny frame. Matt wasn’t looking to pick anyone up but given choice he’d rather have sat by someone more attractive. She told him he was welcome to sit there so it would have been rude for him not to sit. She would have known that it was because of her plain looks.

“Thank you, ma’am. It’s been a long day,” Matt answered politely as he sat down. The bartender came by and Matt ordered a beer, which arrived blessedly quickly.

“Are you just getting off work?” she asked looking at his suit. “From the way you’re dressed, I’d guess you’re a 9 to 5 guy. By the way, my name is Layla.”

“I’m Matt. And normally I am, ma’am. But I had to get a report out before the weekend and it took a while. I work at a bank and we have to meet deadlines.”

“Two ma’ams in a row,” she laughed. “Aren’t you the polite one.” That was true, actually. Matt had been raised to be polite to everyone. “And to an ugly old woman like me.”

That caught Matt by surprise. “You’re not ugly, ma’am. You shouldn’t think of yourself as ugly.” She laughed again, although it was somewhere between a chuckle and a cackle.

Matt flagged down the bartender and ordered a cheeseburger. He usually tried to eat healthy. At 32 he knew that his metabolism was slower than it once was and he tried to stay at his usual 180 pounds. Not ripped by any means, but reasonably slender. But it was Friday night, he’d had a hard week, so he decided to indulge a little.

“But I’m not your type, am I?” She went on, looking directly into Matt’s eyes. For the first time he noticed that they were a vivid shade of green. He wasn’t sure how to answer her. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings and as a matter of fact the conversation had become more personal than it should have with someone he just met. But Layla’s stare was intense, almost as though she could see into his soul. Matt didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt like he had to be honest with her.

“Well, actually ma’am, I like women who are, oh, curvaceous.”

“Just curvaceous, Matt?” Again, he felt like he could not keep secrets from her.

“Okay, more than curvaceous. Extra curvaceous, let’s say.” Layla continued to stare into his eyes. “All right, I like big girls. I don’t know why, but ever since puberty I’ve always been attracted to heavier girls.” Now it was out in the open and he didn’t know how she’d react to it.

“There’s nothing wrong with having preferences, Matt. Even when they don’t conform with what society typically expects.” Matt felt a little better hearing that, but he wanted to change the subject.

“So, you know that I work in a bank. What do you do?”

“Well Matt,” she said with a smile, “I’m a witch.”