Welcome to day two of my Hayffie Christmas countdown! As always, feedback is much appreciated!

NOVEMBER 3RD

Haymitch was barely awake when he pulled up at the office the following day. He wasn't a great sleeper at the best of times but last night, he'd been awake pondering his upcoming 'date' with Effie.

No, he wouldn't call it that. But it was the closest thing to a date that he'd had since…

Haymitch had been 16 when it had happened. Happily dating a girl he met in high school two years previously and then tragedy had struck. He'd lost her in a blink.
He still saw her ghost sometimes, as if she were guiding him through his lie. But it hurt, and he just wished that sometimes, she'd let him move on and be happy.

He was broken from his train of thought by someone knocking on his car window and he looked up to see Chaff waiting for him.

"Didn't think you were workin' today," Haymitch said once he'd gotten out of his car.

"Yeah," he sighed. "Will called in sick. Apparently I'm their go-to in a situation like that."

"Ain't got a clue why," Haymitch smirked, nudging his friend in the side as they walked into the office building.

The two men stopped by the canteen to grab a coffee, chatting as they waited in line.

"Did ya go back for that necklace, then?" Chaff asked with a knowing smirk.

"So what if I did?" Haymitch said, instantly defensive. "Yeah, I went back. Effie had-"

"The fuck is Effie?" Chaff frowned, before a grin spread across his face. "Oh…the blonde with the tits…"

"If that's the way you wanna describe her, then yeah," he mumbled, ordering his coffee and paying before going to sit down at a table.

"So you're on first name terms with her, then?" Chaff wiggled his eyebrows once he'd sat down with his coffee too.

"I can read, Chaff," Haymitch rolled his eyes. "Says it on her name badge."

"So you were staring at her tits, then," Chaff grinned wolfishly.

"Go fuck yourself."

xXx

Chaff wouldn't let it go for the rest of the day and, to make matters worse, the pair were partnered up on call too, meaning Haymitch was trapped in the car with him in the middle of New York for the entire afternoon.

"You're gonna wanna get your little man checked out before you start datin' her," Chaff smirked, onto what Haymitch had counted to be the man's fifteenth ridiculous comment in the past hour. "You sure he still works?"

"Chaff," Haymitch growled. "I'm warnin' ya…"

"Come on, man, it's just a bit of fun…"

"I wasn't like this when you first started datin' Maggie," Haymitch grumbled, his gazed fixed out of the front windscreen.

"Probably because ya had no experience of women," Chaff grinned.

Haymitch hadn't shared his past with Chaff and he wasn't about to now.

"I'm seein' her tomorrow, if ya really wanna know," Haymitch mumbled, unsure whether that admission was truly a good idea.

He soon learned that it wasn't and, by the time he made it home that evening, he was cursing Chaff to hell and back.