Sun speckled through the drapes of the windows. Effie squinted her eyes and looked for her electronic day planner that she always kept on her bedside table. But it wasn't there. Why did her normally pink drapes look red now? She stretched and opened her eyes and fought back a gasp. What the hell… She was in his room. She slept here... all night. Oh no… Oh no… Effie quietly shifted out of bed and adjusted her pencil skirt. It was all sorts of twisted around her hips and her blouse was a wrinkled mess. More buttons had popped open during the night.
She stumbled over his discarded shoes and jostled the bed and it was just her luck that Haymitch opened his eyes. He sucked in a deep breath as his head pounded. Effie was at the end of his bed. Fantastically frumpy and wrinkled from sleep, this amused him. Her blonde hair was deliciously tousled around her face.
"Normal people don't jostle people who are sleeping." He sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
Effie just blinked and stammered over her words. "Go back to sleep." She glanced at the door and ran a hand through her hair. Haymitch smiled, she was so flustered and clearly uncomfortable.
"Why are you here so early?" He played dumb, "Did I miss some mentor duty already?" He glanced at his clock for show. She was fun to tease but she almost looked upset now.
"I… Was just checking on you. You had a rough night.. I.. fell asleep on the living room couch.. Late night escort stuff…" She looked so relieved he didn't realize she slept in his bed. "Well… good morning… Bye…" She bolted out of the room.
Haymitch rubbed the back of his head and laid back down, she may think he didn't remember. But there was no denying the smell of her perfume or her shampoo on his pillow that he brought a little closer to his face. He dozed off back to sleep and felt the strange tug of the strings near him mouth. A smile.
Effie burst into her room in a frantic mess. Thank god he didn't remember asking her to stay and her agreeing. Or the blatant flirting they did on his bed. Oh god… Effie this was not good. You cannot make a habit of this. She shed her clothes and rushed for the shower. She was already so behind on her schedule. She'd have to rush to get ready for the day.
The warm shower brought no soothing feeling to her turmoil. How could he not remember her staying? His bed had to smell like her now.. Would he be quick enough to make the connection? Oh god, or did he already know she stayed and he played dumb to ease her feelings about it. Now why would Haymitch do that for her? This was a horrible mess, the stress of it made her head ache.
She had 20 minutes to get herself together to make sure they got the kids to their first training day on time. She put on less make-up for the sake of giving herself more time to dress. Part of that decision process came from the now multiple times Haymitch has commented about her lack of make-up being pretty.
Preened to perfection in what times allowed her, Effie hurried from her room to collect the kids. Both of them were lingering in the living area. The little girl spoke first, "Miss Effie… Are you taking us to training?"
Effie glanced at the door leading to Haymitch's room. No sign of him moving. She frowned, somewhere she hoped he would have been up to do this. "Yes I am darling." She smiled. "Mr. Abernathy is feeling ill. I'll be your mentor today."
"But you haven't won a Hunger Game…" the boy pointed out.
"Well that is true, but I've hung around enough Victors that I might be useful to you both anyway." Effie smiled with a quick wink and motioned for the door. "This way you two, it's very important to be timely."
Effie swallowed the bitter taste of broken hope. How did she expect him to be any different. After all he was hung over now. He wouldn't emerge until the afternoon. Some things just never changed.