"Is it true?" he thundered, walking briskly into Jessica's office.
"Good morning to you too, Harvey.
Lose the act, Jessica and don't give me shit. Is it true? Did Mike resign?"
Jessica reclined in her chair behind her desk, casually looking at the furious man before her.
"Yes. It's true."
"And you didn't stop him!?"
"It wasn't my place. It wasn't my decision to make."
She had tried, but if she wasn't going to be listened to she wasn't going to waste her breath. If Mike hadn't wanted to stay she wasn't going to force him. Even through everything she still believed in free will.
Before she had a chance to say any of this he was gone. Storming put of her office as suddenly as he had stormed into it.
Couples fight. They fight, they get angry, they don't talk for a while and, then, they 'do'. They 'do' talk and, more often than not, they make up.
That's how it's supposed to happen.
Jessica wasn't wrong in her earlier assessment of Harvey; he was furious.
Furious at Mike, at their argument, their idiocy, but above all, he was furious at himself. If he hasn't asked that ludicrous question in the first place. If he hadn't just sprung it on Mike like that. Then maybe, 'maybe', everything would be alright.
Scenes played over and over in his head, a continuous loop of everything he could have done differently.
He was sure that if it wasn't for how he had acted none of this would have happened.
He was sure that this was all his fault.
"Are you sure about this, Harvey?" she asked him.
She was concerned. How could she not be?
After Mike's disappearance he had changed. It seemed slight. On the surface there was nothing to worry about, until you looked closely and saw that there was.
Obsessive, reclusive, easily angered, manic and distracted. It was hard for Donna to see him like this. She knew in her heart that she would never forgive Mike for the destruction he had caused so unknowingly.
Mike. Michael Ross. Resigned. Disappeared, seemingly off the face of earth. Gone without any warning and all within a matter of days.
When she said disappeared, she meant disappeared - had moved out of his apartment, changed his cell number and cut all ties with them completely.
She didn't care if she never spoke to him again, but it was killing her to see what it was doing to Harvey.
"You have to be sure, Harvey." she prodded, waiting for a reply, hoping he would turn to her and tell her to forget it.
"I'm sure," he said in a subdued and silent state of anger, his jaw clenched tight and his eyes steely. Eyes that he now did turn on her.
"Do it, Donna. And don't ask me again if sure, because I am and this needs to get done."
With that he turned away from her again. Not saying another word, knowing that she would do whatever it was he needed. Even if she disapproved.