It Doesn't Have To Be That Way Chapter 7
When Donna arrived home, she went directly into her bedroom and proceeded to pack a few belongings so she could stay with Harvey over the Christmas weekend. She was going to insist coming home Sunday night before they reported back to work because she did not want to face Louis the first weekend she had shared with Harvey in more than just a secretarial capacity. Louis was always over protective of her that sometimes she felt just a little smothered.
"Hey, Harvey, let me call my mom and sister and tell them that I won't be there this year."
Before she could step away from her he took her elbow and looking her in the eye, she said, "Hey, I've got a better idea."
"No, Harvey, my mother and my sisters were not expecting you. They would read too much into what's going on between us...by the way what is going on between us, Harvey. Seriously..." she said looking into those big brown orbs that melted her legs when she stared too long.
"We're being whom we should have been a long time ago," Harvey said as he gently held her hands in his.
Donna said nothing but let go of Harvey's hands and went into the bedroom to apologize to her sister for not showing up at her place to celebrate the day with the family. Julie, as usual, figured out Donna was with Harvey although Donna hotly disputed it until the end of the phone call. They mutually hung up and Donna vowed she would see Julia's new disgustingly large apartment after the holidays when things were not so hectic.
Donna had come back into the living room where she found Harvey watching a past Andy Williams' Christmas special that they were showing on PBS. She did not say anything but watched the special and could not remember if her mother had ever mentioned this one to her. Being only in her early 40's she knew who Andy Williams was but could not exactly remember if she ever saw anything first hand. For a moment she watched Andy Williams interact with his children and his then wife through Harvey's eyes. A happy family must seem foreign to him because of how he grew up with an almost always absent father and a mother who never cared one iota about her husband and cheated with any guy she could get.
"Hey, everything ok?" Harvey asked turning around and eyeing her.
"Oh, yes," Donna said trying to recover her composure never realizing how she had lost it in the first place.
"Well, I'm ready to go if you are," Donna said.
"I thought you wanted to stay here for a while? "
"No, I think I would rather stay at your place.."
"I thought you didn't want to stay the night again in my sex infested bed?"
"I'm making an exception, Specter. So do you want to have sex again or are you through with me?"
Harvey jumped of the couch and giving her his best Chesire cat smile said, "I am never done with you. So let's go back to my place." He whispered the last of the statement and kissed her temple on the way back to the door of her apartment.
They arrived back at his condo and immediately Donna curled up on the couch and invited Harvey to sit down next to her. He went into the kitchen instead.
"What are you doing?" Donna asked watching Harvey sort through his almost bare cupboards.
"Do you want to share some cocoa? I think I still have some mix somewhere and I do have some cream and milk. Why don't you find something on the tube to watch or would you rather listen to music?"
"I'm heading for the stereo. We never finished listening to your father's album last night." So Donna rose from the couch and padded in her thick socks to Harvey's stereo controls on the wall. When she hit the button with one perfectly manicured finger, Harvey's apartment filled with sounds of a mellow sax playing "The Christmas Song".
As she returned to the sofa with one leg curled under her, Harvey came to the couch carrying to mugs of hot chocolate smothered in whipped cream.
Harvey sat down next to her and Donna bent down to pick up her hot chocolate.
"Ooo, hot," she said as she started to blow on it. She had managed to get whipped cream on the tip of her nose and Harvey leaned over to her and kissed it off.
"You didn't use all of that, did you?" Donna asked thinking of that other time.
Harvey smiled from ear to ear and chuckled. "Why, are you thinking of doing lascivious things to me with it?"
"Well, one never knows where the Christmas spirit will take us?"
"I love you, Donna." Harvey said becoming serious again. "I want you to know that I love you. You make my days brighter and complete my life in a way that I didn't realize until you weren't there."
Donna's eyes were quickly filling with tears. She put down her mug and laying her hand on Harvey's cheeks said, "That's exactly how I love you, too."
They kissed and Donna realized that Harvey never opened his Christmas present from her.
"Please Harvey? Please open it. I need to know if you want to take it back," Donna pleaded.
He could refuse her nothing right now and to open this gift was no exception. He alighted from the couch and retrieved the present from the barstool where he had lain his coat when they arrived back from Donna's place earlier.
The box itself was about eight inches square and two inches deep. It was heavy. Harvey had no idea what it was. He slowly removed the large red ribbon and crumpled the green foil wrap. He slipped the lid off the box and was surprised to see a new Scotch decanter and a glass. He lifted the decanter carefully out of the box and saw that his initials were etched on one side. Also in the box was a matching scotch glass also etched with his initials.
"Donna it's beautiful. How did you know I broke my other bottle and decanter." Harvey asked still staring at the beautiful crystal and smiling wide.
"I'm Donna. I just knew." Donna did not want to tell him that she saw the mess in his office after he threw Louis threw his coffee table which was where the decanter and glasses were set. She was also the one that told Gretchen where to purchase the exact same pieces of furniture because Donna had ordered them for Harvey when he became Junior Partner six years previous.
"I don't have anything for you, but I can take you shopping tomorrow and buy whatever you want?"
Donna took Harvey's decanter and made him place it carefully on the table in front of them and then leaned back taking him with her. She felt him put his arm around her and she laid her head on his shoulder.
"You already gave me the best present there is for me," Donna whispered into his ear.
"What's that?" Harvey whispered back knowing her answer but wanting to hear it from her.
"You." She then kissed him deeply.
