Chapter 5

Or... I can let her lead and see where this goes.

Haymitch found himself ushered towards one of the velvet sofas in the room. She smiled radiantly at him and treated him the way one would treat a potential customer. One of her staffs, came to offer him a drink which he accepted gruffly.

"Give me one minute," Euphemia Trinket trilled in a high tone. "I am almost done with Ms. Tan and then I will be right over with you. Make yourself comfortable!"

He gave a nod, still staring at her. She hurried across the room to her customer, her heels clicking loudly against the marble floor. He let his gaze roam her figure from the elaborate hair-do to the silk blouse tucked neatly into the waist band of her skirt down the long legs and the high heels, and wondered if she had ever broken her ankle from it before.

This was the woman he had spent more than twenty hours on a plane across the globe for. She was beautiful, he would admit that but it still felt a little underwhelming to him. Aside from the fact that this was the fastest he had ever located anyone he was put on a case for, he couldn't see anything special about her. He could see it in Annie Cresta. He could see it in Iris Everdeen because of her children but Euphemia Trinket...

He tossed the thought aside.

Special or not, he had been tasked to get her back and getting her back would be a challenge.

With time on his hand, Haymitch composed a single line of text for Stephen Trinket. Found her. She's safe.

He brought up the camera function to take a photo of her shop for her father's benefit. He heard the noise of her heels first followed swiftly by a hand on the screen on his phone.

"Ah, ah, ah, no photography," she warned him.

Haymitch lowered his phone. "Why not? I thought you got all these stuff up on your Facebook? Your dresses are there, yeah?"

The smile she threw him was dazzling but he also noticed the impatience in it.

"Not all of my designs. Some dresses are customised specially for my clients. It won't do to have those up on special media before their big day. As much as I do not want people stealing my wedding designs, I also have to respect my customer's wishes for it to be a surprise until their wedding day. Now," she clapped her hands together, "do we begin or shall we wait for your fiancé?"

That question caught him slightly off guard. Haymitch looked around. He was in a bridal boutique and it was not wrong of her to assume that he was there for a very specific reason.

"We shall wait for her. It is uncommon for the groom to be to be here without the significant other since the bride usually has more specifications in mind," Effie laughed lightly. "Most decisions are made by the bride, from my experience."

"There's no need. No one's coming."

She looked surprised at that but Haymitch hated lying. He could give half-truths but to pretend that he was here for her wedding services in order to get closer to her… He was sure he could think of a better alternative without giving himself away.

"I'm here on business… Was just passin' by your shop… I don't see many – I mean, it is usually the locals with this sort of business, isn't it?"

She tilted her head to the side and fixed him with a strange look.

"Am I to understand that you stopped by because you saw a white woman working in a bridal boutique?"

"Yeah," he answered. "Like I said, don't see that often here."

Not that he had been here long enough to form such deductions but it would have to do, he thought.

"It's interesting, is all," he added amicably.

"Oh, is that really so?" She seemed pleased by what he said as if she had found a slice of validation in what she had achieved her. Lowering herself on the seat across from him, she asked, "You are not here for my services then?"

"Nah," Haymitch mumbled. "Got no prospect, not interested."

Her eyes lighted up and it raked over him, taking the sight of him before she simply told him, "Do not sell yourself short."

Haymitch raised an eyebrow at that.

"You seem oddly familiar," she commented and briefly, Haymitch feared that she recalled him calling out to her at the light show yesterday. "I cannot recall at the moment but I will eventually. How long have you been here?"

"Few days," he answered and it made her laugh, a little too derisively in his opinion.

"How could you possibly know that there are no other people like me with a boutique?" she exclaimed.

She was sharp, he would grant her that.

"Something I observed. Maybe there are others, I wouldn't know and that'll be my mistake for making an assumption. Your place just caught my attention," he said and paused.

He learnt that if given some sort of attention, he would get a reaction in return so he waited to see if she would be flustered by it but she merely held his gaze.

He should have known, though. With a mother who was a famous model, she was probably used to having people's attention that coming from him, it was nothing.

"Like I said, Euphe- " Haymitch stopped abruptly. He cleared his throat. "Like I said, here on business and haven't done much sight-seeing."

She froze. Her whole body tensed at that.

Haymitch schooled his expression carefully. He realised his slip up. She was Euphemia to him. Her parents had introduced her as such when they came and until that morning, she had never been anything else to him, especially not an Effie.

"What was it that you were going to call me by?" her voice had lost its warmth.

She no longer looked like she welcomed his presence.

"Effie," he answered. "I was going to call you that. But that'll be me assuming that you're the Effie whose name appears on the outside of this shop. I think I've done one too many assumptions today. You haven't introduced yourself, sweetheart. Rude, that."

He had once tried to imagine what she would be like, if she took after her mother or her father, and he remembered Lysandra Trinket being big on manners the day they met. She should have instilled the same on her children so he waited to see how Effie Trinket would react to being called rude.

"Oh! How terrible of me!" she exclaimed. "Effie Trinket, pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Her demeanour was much more relaxed now as she extended her hand to him.

He smirked. Like my mother, like daughter.

"Haymitch Abernathy," he clasped her proffered hand.

"I am still certain I have seen you somewhere before! Did you follow me from anywhere?" she teased.

"The only interesting thing I've seen in this country so far is the light and water show…"

"That must be it! I was there yesterday," she beamed. "I likely saw you in passing, hence the familiarity."

And the two weeks before, he added silently.

"Yeah, that must be it," he shrugged, hoping she would put the matter to rest now.

XxX

The only indication that perhaps something was not right was the incessant tapping of her finger against the side of her phone as they waited for their Grab car.

"I have to warn you," she said, turning her body slightly to face him, "there is nothing interesting to it."

"Got it," he nodded curtly. "Is that the car?"

"It is an entirely boring process and not one you should saddle yourself with on your free day."

"It doesn't bother me. Like I said, sweetheart, I just want to see more of this city."

"Hmm," she hummed, not entirely convinced by it. "I do have a name that is not 'sweetheart'."

He faced her, a contemplative look on his face.

"You don't want me to come," Haymitch stated.

"You are correct. I do not know you."

"That's a fair point," Haymitch conceded. "Thought if it was so boring, you could use the company but… Your loss then," he took a step and lightly brushed passed her. "See you around, sweetheart."

"Tell me, Haymitch, are you here to steal my business?"

He stopped dead in his track at the absurdity of her question.

"What?"

"I just find it suspicious that you want to come with me while I scout for venues for an outdoor wedding."

He chuckled but she did indeed look perturbed.

"That didn't even cross my mind. I know nothing 'bout weddings. I just want to see more places before I leave. Look at this way… You can do your job and at the same time, act as a guide for me. Works well, yeah? We both benefit from it."

"What is it that you do exactly?" she narrowed her eyes. "You said you're here on business but you never said what kind of business."

"That's cause it's on a need to know basis so I can't tell you."

"That's exactly what someone who is trying to steal some else's business might say!"

"Sweetheart - "

"Effie," she insisted.

"Effie," he amended because he needed to get through to her. "Even if I quit my job, your business is the last thing I wanna get into. You don't want me around, that's fine. No need to go accusing me of somethin' that ain't true."

She studied him before letting out a breath.

"My apologies," she said. "I just had to make sure. Everything is a little…surreal. From seeing you out of the window of my shop to … here. If you tell me something about yourself, I will let you come along," she compromised with a little challenge of her own. "You seem to me like the sort of man who keeps things to yourself so why don't you tell me something."

Haymitch resisted the urge to roll his eyes. If there was one thing he disliked, it was talking about himself. But it was his job to earn her trust and that was what she was asking of him, that he give her something that could make him appear a little trustworthy to her.

He was a stranger to her and she was not wrong to be wary.

He needed time with her and he could not afford to blow this out of the water. So when the car pulled up in front of them, he opened the door and slid in, leaving her to enter the car from the other side. She glared at him as she closed the door.

"Well?"

"Tell you on the way," he said, slipping his hand inside his pocket to touch the familiar silver flask.

He wanted a drink as he thought through the pieces of this absurd situation he was in that he could tell her.

I hope you like how their meeting went! Leave me a review with your thoughts :)

marizpe who wanted to learn more about weddings in Singapore which I thought I should share in the A/N too… I can't really say much bc weddings are based heavily on one's culture. For example, I'm Malay, so our engagements and weddings will be very different than how the Chinese/Indians will do it which means, when a friend from a different race/ethnicity invites you to their ceremony, it is always fun because it is different than yours :) but don't worry, Effie will still have business here because people also still wear modern wedding dresses in addition to traditional ones.

Grab is an app, very much like Uber, but only works in South East Asia.