What if we could look a bit into Donna's life. Just a oneshot to have fun before today episode. Hope you all like it.
It was already 8pm when he arrived back in New York. He wasn't exactly feeling physically tired, the discomfort was emotional, from all he had to face while helping his brother to keep his kids.
His talk with Donna was short, but she always knows the right thing to say to make him feel better. Those two days without seeing her was hard, he misses her and cannot hide the feeling from him anymore. So, without much thought he leaves the airport and goes straight to her place.
He doesn't have a particular plan in mind, he just needs to see her, feel her vanilla and strawberry scent, have a talk and maybe, if he is lucky enough, a few drinks too. And before he knows it, he is standing in front of the 206 door and is about to knock, when he hears her loud laugh.
Her voice is bubbly and she sound so, so happy: "Ow, you stop it! No, I am most definitely not using it regularly, just because you want me to. I told you, it is too flashy!".
Overhearing that conversation let him feeling weird an uncomfortable, but things just got a thousand times worse when he heard clearly a man voice speaking: "Come on, baby, please! At least let me take the polaroid!"
And with that he was done. An uncontrollable flow of thoughts came to his mind, she was seeing someone. Of course she could, looking that beautiful and desirable. And obviously she would, they didn't have anything together, but he couldn't help feeling... Feeling like she was cheating on him. But that wasn't fair, they were back to normal, just friends, even after that kiss. They have been smiling, drinking, and definitely flirting, but that was their normal, right?!
However, right now, to know that another man was seeing her in something flashy and taking pictures of her was driving him to the edge. He was feeling so jealous, that the feeling was overwhelming, he needed to get out of there immediately. He was in such a hurry that he didn't see a vase that was in the way and knocked it away, making a really loud noise. "Shit"
The noise startled Donna. He could hear her say: "Did you hear that?! It must be the pizza guy, I am starving". And in a beat the door was wide open, and he was catch trying to fix that mess of dirty and vase shards with one hand, and carrying his suitcase with the other. He looked pathetic and guilty.
"Harvey", she sighed. She had a flushed face, a heavy make up on, the hair was messy and wavy, and the dress. OMG, flashy didn't cover what she was wearing. It was a small, tight, strapless, black dress. The last time he saw that much of her skin was only the other time.
All the years of playing poker wasn't of any use, there was no chance in heaven that she didn't realise all that was going on in his mind when she looked at his face. He couldn't help but to measure every inch of her exposed freckled ivory skin.
He wished he could touch her, take her right there. But instead he had to watch his worse nightmare come to life, when he saw the man, she has been talking to, meeting her at the door.
"Hey baby, is everything all right?!" He said that casually and intimately hugging her from behind, encircling her waist with his arms, and playfully knocking her a bit sideways. And right there, he felt his guts twist inside him. She looked perfectly confortable in his arms.
The guy was tall, with reddish brown hair, large and square chin and had a long and pointy nose. Looking at him, Harvey got a funny feeling, it was the first time he was seeing him, but his face wasn't really unknown to him, as if he knew the guy from someplace else, but he couldn't really tell from where.
Harvey finally found his voice. "Hey Donna, I am sorry I came here unannounced, I didn't mean to interrupt your night, I am really sorry about your vase too, I will send you a new one in the morning". And with that he was already turning to leave, afraid it would be impossible to control his urges to knock out that man who had the guts to be that close to his Donna. His Donna?! What was he thinking?!
It wasn't like she hasn't warned him. He remembers that day perfectly now. "If you don't figure your shit out, the only one getting hurt is you". She was speaking about Alex, but that applied perfectly to this very moment. Donna was right again, if only he had figured his shit earlier.
This time was her turn to find her voice, and in a hurry, with her right hand covering her neck, trying unsuccessfully to hide her cleavage, she urges him to stop:
"Hey there, where are you going? You are not interrupting anything. I was just trying on clothes with Tom, my big brother, remember?!".
Tom, in a witty way, clearly that shit runs in their DNA, introduced himself, or sort of: "Hello there. Now, where is the pizza?"
"Hey Tom, stop being you for a second, this is Harvey, my boss, not a pizza guy". She said that half pleading to him to behave, clearly demonstrating that he was someone special to her.
"Well, I would say that you were damn lucky to have such a good-looking and well dressed pizza guy. But now that you mentioned that he is your boss, well I must confess that I always thought that you were exaggerating when you mentioned how hot he was. Hey Harvey, if you ever feel like trying new things, give me a call". He said that with a wink and a huge smile, clearly happy to know that he was leaving both of them deeply uncomfortable.
Harvey could not believe what was going on in front of him, his jealousy must have blinded him. Of course he remembered seeing pictures of Donna and her two older brothers. So not only she wasn't seeing anyone, she actually mentioned him to her brother, pointing that he was hot?! He couldn't help and opened his cheshire grin.
Donna was clearly bewildered. "Ok Thomas, way too much information, keep like that and I will personally make sure your husband is informed of your behaviour. And you mister, take out this cocky smile from your face and get your sorry ass inside, you are gonna clean this mess later, right now I just need a moment to get out of this dress and send Tom home".
Harvey let the shards he was holding drop again on the floor and got inside her apartment.
"Make yourself comfortable, there is wine on the table and scotch in the decanter, choose what you want. Tom, come inside unzip me".
And with that, both of them were gone inside her room, that he only saw once, many years ago. Thomas was soon back in the living room. And Harvey, started to apologise to him again.
"No worries, we were already finished". He answered nonchalantly, clearly trying to behave, while gathering many dresses and putting them inside appropriates travel bags. Harvey recognised some of the dresses he was storing, as Donna had already used many of them at the firm.
Donna was back in a heart beat, with a pony tale, wearing a casual pair of jeans and a white tank top. She looked beautiful, and seeing how he looked confused, started explaining. "So Harvey, Tom is chief editor in a fashion magazine, and we have had a deal for many years now. I model for his internal clothes catalog and in return I get to wear those pretty dresses. Every 15 days, he comes, bring new clothes and take the old ones away, except for those I fall in love with". She says that with a cheap smile.
"Baby sis here is my life size Barbie since always".
Harvey still looked confused. "So you work as a model?".
"Sort of, Tom has to catalog all the clothes that are sent to the magazine, to decide which ones are going to be featured in the next issue. So, I am one of the models of this internal catalog. I keep the clothes as a loan and a payment for my work as a model until next photo shoot. The ones that I like the most I may buy later".
"So you don't really own all those dress that you wear".
"Of course not, all the dresses that I already wore wouldn't fit in this apartment".
"Well, this apartment certainly can store that little, barely noticeable black thing you were wearing when I arrived, you should definitely keep that". Harvey says with a mischievous grin.
"Sees Donna, you looked fabulous on that and you didn't even let me take a polaroid, I had to catalog that dress on a sorry hanger, the least you could do is take that dress for a walk and find yourself a cute husband, I want nephews, woman!"
Donna, that was serving herself and filling Harvey's cup with red wine, almost dropped her cup.
"Thomas I swear to God, I'm gonna kill you"
"Leave God be, I'm all set and going, since I can feel I have been uninvited to have pizza with you, now you have a much better option to keep you company". Tom said that blinking to Harvey and heading to the door, giving a huge bear hug in his sister and kissing her forehead, he said goodbye.
Once Donna closed the door the air was filled with tension. Harvey was casually sitting on her sofa, playing with his cup, he looked lost in his thoughts. She sat on her legs, quite close to him, and started drinking her wine. "A penny for your thoughts".
His voice was hoarse. "I thought you could read all of them".
"Most of the times, but today you are particularly hard to read"
Harvey finally looked at her and a small smile started spreading on his face. "So, you told your brother that I am hot".
She looked at him, rising her eyebrows and answered as matter of factly. "Don't be so smug. One day Tom asked how you looked like and I said you are handsome".
His grin grew wider.
She looked at him impatiently. "What?! It is true".
"I believe the word you are looking for is 'hot'".
At this point she was smiling too and shaking her head lightly.
"Well, on the other hand hot doesn't cover how you looked inside that dress. You are beautiful".
Donna was surprised with his boldness and flirtation manner, but quickly recovered and answered, trying to keep the light mood.
"Yeah, I should be more careful with what I wear in front of you, heart attack is a thing at your advanced age, right?!"
"I am not that older than you".
"You should have seen your face, looking all guilty. I just don't understand why you were so surprised to see my brother".
Harvey looked down at his cup, wondering if he should be honest about it. And after a long breath, he answered with a heavy voice. "I didn't recognised him at first. I thought that you were seeing someone, I thought that you were with a boyfriend, and I just panicked when I saw him holding you".
She looked straight at his face, trying to understand the feeling behind those confessions, but before she could ask anything, he kept going. "I felt bad once you introduced him, because you know everything about me and yet there is so much of you that I don't know about. I didn't even know you were a freaking model!"
At this point he turned and was sitting facing Donna, their legs were touching lightly and he could see a frown forming in her forehead. "Omg, you thought that I was dating my brother! That is gross, Harvey!" She said that, giving him a small slap on his arm.
He looked at her hand resting against his arm and put his hand on top of hers, making small circles with his thumb. She immediately tensed.
The flirting banter was their new normal, but touching was still something that left her jumpy and anxious, with her heart speeding up in her chest.
"I felt so, so jealous". He said that encircling her hand with his. He was holding the tip of her fingers and brought them close to his nose, savouring her smell, before placing a light kiss on the top of her hand, as a gentleman of another era would do, without taking his gaze from her.
Donna was in shock, watching that scene.
"Harvey, why are you here?"
"Do you want the truth?"
She just gave a small nod.
"I missed you, I just needed to see you, and waiting until tomorrow suddenly seemed just too much".
Without letting go of her hand, he whispered in her ear. "I guess I am into you". Their faces were only inches apart, he fixed a strand of her hair away from her face, tracing her cheek with the tips of his fingers, rubbing lightly his thumb against her bottom lip. She closed her eyes to intensify the feeling of his touch against her mouth.
Still whispering he continued."And I was wondering if you lied when you told me that you felt nothing when you kissed me, because I most certainly felt something".
Her eyes opened just in time to see him tilting his head and caressing her lips with his, but before that could really become a kiss, the door bell rang, making them jump apart, bursting their bubble.
"I should answer that, probably is the pizza guy". She babbled, standing up, fixing her hair, on her way to the door.
She closed the door, holding the box, and asked. "On the sofa or at the table?"
"Well I would like to try those too, but we could start on the bed". He said that with a boyish smile, taking her completely by surprise, she started laughing, and then the laughs became uncontrollable, soon the laugh became a little cry, that turned into a sobbing.
He reached her. "Hey there, what is going on?".
Gathering all her forces she stated, pouring her heart out. "I love you, Harvey. I always have and always will. I want you, I want more with you. I want everything with you. But, you can't come in here and play with my feelings. I just can't take it anymore. If you really want me, if you are all in, please take me now and make me yours, but if your plan is to retreat in the morning and pretend this never happened, I beg you to leave my house now".
Before she knew it, he was all over her, they couldn't undress fast enough, touching every inch of each other wasn't enough, they need to fuse one in the other to find peace. All those years of suppressed tension was erupting and soon they were one.
"Wow that was intense". She said that all wrapped around his naked form.
He was tracing small circles in her back, and with his other hand lightly pulled her chin towards him. "I love you, Donna. More than I can put into words. I am scared, but I know we will make this work".
She raised and gave him a small kiss. "I know that too, but right now all I want to do is to eat. I am starving, the pizza must have cooled already".
"Don't you worry, I will fix something for us. Can we picnic on your bed?"
"Yes!"
Soon after he was back holding a can of whipped cream and a bowl full of strawberries.
"I just found this on your kitchen counter. Do you eat this everyday or you knew I would come?"
She didn´t even try to look ashamed and with a big grin she answered. "I bought these yesterday, before coming home. A girl can dream.."
With a huge smile he asked. "What are we waiting for?".
"For you to figure out it is time to come back here".