Synchronicity

Chapter Eight

"So I am starting a new case today." Rebecca said, handing him his shirt. She was already dressed for the day but like always he was taking his sweet time. "I'm having lunch with the lawyer for the other side in order to try and mediate a settlement so we don't have to go to court."

"Ok." He replied, looking at her strangely. Then he started to button up his shirt. "Since when did we start sharing what our schedules for the day were?" He chuckled. "Did I miss that memo? Do I have to tell you what I plan on doing today?"

She smiled. "No. I just…I thought that maybe you might want to know about this meeting."

"Why?" He was finished with his shirt and started putting on his tie. "What's so special about that meeting?"

"It's with David Black."

He laughed. "Who is he?"

"He works for Smith and Kline. He is the lawyer for the other side who also happens to be my old college boyfriend…the same college boyfriend I had for four years and was briefly engaged to before I called it off." She looked over at him, trying to gauge his reaction. His face gave nothing away though.

She honestly wasn't trying to make him jealous. She just wanted to be honest and upfront with him so there wouldn't be any secrets between them.

"Harvey…"

After a moment he turned away to look in the mirror and make his tie perfect. "It's ok. You don't need to worry about telling me things like that. It's not like we are in a relationship or even exclusive for that matter."

"We aren't?" She challenged with a laugh. That was news to her. She wasn't sure which part she was more upset by…the fact that he said they weren't exclusive or that they weren't in a relationship. "Then why are you over at my place or I'm over here every night for weeks now?"

"I don't know…maybe because you're one hell of a good lay." He shook his head. "But it sure as shit isn't because we are in a relationship."

She watched his face in the mirror as it turned to stone and in that moment her heart crumbled. She didn't know everything about this man but she did figure out that he had trust issues and trying to break down his walls was a full time job. She thought she had been making progress, but the look on his face and the words he spoke told her otherwise.

Sadness turned to anger and without thinking it through she spoke words that she immediately regretted. "Ok. So then if we aren't exclusive or even in a relationship for that matter, you won't mind if halfway through lunch I let him take me into the bathroom for a quickie for old times' sake."

If looks could kill, she was certain she would be dead. That was clearly the wrong thing to say.

"Be my guest." He spat out the words angrily and grabbed his suit jacket. Then he walked closer to her. "Go be a whore for your ex and try to win the settlement you want. After all, it wouldn't be the first time you tried that. Hell, you did that with me. Look how great it turned out for you then. No wonder you want to try that tactic again. It must be your signature move by now when you realize you have no case."

Without thinking she slapped him across the face. "How dare you say that to me again!"

"I think it is best if we end whatever this was right here and right now." His voice was cold and detached, and she didn't know how to fix this.

A part of her wanted to apologize and say she was sorry for baiting him. She was aware he was lashing out at her again and she wanted to believe he didn't truly think she would try to whore herself out for a settlement. But there was another part of her that was both angry and hurt. This was the second time he had accused her of this. And the fact that he was denying that they were in a relationship was ridiculous.

She knew he didn't do relationships, but somehow over the course of the last month they had slipped into a relationship. In this moment her anger and hurt got the better of her. So instead of fighting him, she gave up.

"You might just be right about that because I can't do whatever you want to call this with an asshole who thinks so little of me. Goodbye Harvey." Without looking back she grabbed her bag and walked out of his penthouse. As much as she wanted to crumble, she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of letting him see her break.


Harvey sighed as he stalked the halls of Pearson Specter Litt towards his office. He was in a bad mood. There was no denying it. But he could deny the reason. He could pretend that breaking things off with Rebecca this morning didn't hurt. He could pretend that calling her a whore again didn't haunt him. He could pretend that he didn't want to run over to her office and beg her to forgive him.

But what would happen if he did get her to forgive him? Then what? She implied they were in a relationship. And somehow, against his better judgement and no matter how hard he denied it, he had indeed found himself in a relationship with her. It broke every single goddamn rule he had about not getting romantically involved. But here he was and he hated this feeling.

She had become the thing he thought about first when he woke up in the morning and the last thing he thought about before going to sleep. He was in too deep and if he didn't stop what they were now, he would only get in deeper.

He sat down in his chair and sighed when he saw Donna enter his office. "Donna, not now please."

"What's wrong with you?" Donna asked, coming over to the side of his desk.

"Nothing." He shook everything off and pretended to be back to normal.

"It's not nothing." She laughed. "So either tell me or I'll call Rebecca and get the whole story from her."

It was a time like this where he wasn't sure he was happy about her and Donna becoming such good friends. He briefly wondered if they talked about him behind his back, but then focused on the conversation at hand. "What makes you think it has to do with her?"

"Because I know you, Harvey."

"Well if you call her she probably won't answer because whatever we had is over. I'm pretty sure she hates me now." He couldn't even bring himself to say her name. This was making him feel pathetic, and he hated that feeling.

"What did you do this time?" Donna whispered quietly.

"What makes you automatically jump to the conclusion that I did something?" He practically yelled at her. "Why is it so hard to believe she did something?"

"Again, it's because I know you." She repeated.

"Fine." He knew that if he didn't tell Donna now, she would just pester him until he confessed. Or even worse, she really would call Rebecca for her side of the story. He could only imagine how that conversation would play out. "She told me she was having a working lunch with her ex."

"Ok." Donna said, looking at him strangely. "What's so wrong about that?"

"She thought she needed to tell me that because we were in a relationship." He expected Donna to understand now that he told her. After all, he knew she was fully aware of his relationship issues.

"I don't understand." She shook her head. "You guys are, or were until this morning, in a relationship."

"No we weren't!" He insisted loudly.

"Ok." She conceded. "Maybe you didn't think of it as a relationship. But if you had been in a relationship you would have expected her to be honest and tell you something like that. So why are you so mad at her for being honest and upfront with you?"

"I'm not mad." He objected.

"Harvey…I see it on your face. You're clearly mad."

"I'm not mad at her. I just…I don't do relationships." He sighed. "You know that about me."

"I know you didn't used to do relationships." She agreed. "But whether you like it or not, you were in a relationship with Rebecca. And I think deep down you know that, it scared you and so you made an irrational decision to lash out at her."

"I know nothing like that." Harvey smirked slightly. Sometimes it was scary how Donna seemed to know what was going on in his head.

"So what did you do?" Donna asked again. "How badly did you lash out at her this time?"

"How did you know?"

"I'm Donna. I know everything." She smiled. "C'mon. How bad was it?"

"I was shitty to her." He was ashamed to admit. "I brought up some things that I knew would hurt in order to get her to be angry enough to leave."

"You need to apologize." She told him.

"I don't think that will help." He hung his head. "I'm too good at making her angry with me."

"Well no one has ever accused you of doing things half-assed before." She laughed. "But fine." She walked over to the doorway. "Do nothing. Be miserable. Make her miserable too. But you know the only way to make up for being an asshole is to apologize and mean it."

He watched her go back to her desk and thought about it. Apologizing meant admitting they were in a relationship. Was that really something he was ready to do? Ever since the night Lola fixed Mike's problem and he found Rebecca asleep on his couch he realized he had legitimate feelings for her.

That was a dangerous prospect for him. He always said he didn't want to care about anyone except his younger brother and his family. And while he made exceptions for caring about Jessica, Donna, Mike, Rachel and even Louis to a certain extent…he wasn't sure he was ready to add Rebecca to the list. But if he didn't apologize to her then she was going to be out of his life for good. That wasn't something he wanted either.

He sighed as he contemplated his next step.


"I know I said it earlier, but I have to say it again. You truly look great Rebecca." David told her. "New York definitely agrees with you."

"Thank you David." Rebecca managed to smile. It had been a rough morning ever since her breakup with Harvey. While she didn't want to come to lunch with David anymore, she had to because it was her job. So she put on her fake smiles and tried to get through the day.

"I was beyond surprised when I heard you moved out here. I never thought you would leave California. You loved it there."

"Well I just needed a change and New York City seemed like as good of a place as any."

"Can we talk about the purple elephant in the room?" He chuckled.

She knew what he meant and sighed. A part of her hoped they would at least get through the majority of their lunch without having to talk about this. Unfortunately it looked like she was wrong. "Do we have to talk about it right now?"

"I just feel the need to thank you again." He told her, reaching across the table and grabbing her hand. "You could have ended my career before it started, but you chose not to and I'll forever be grateful to you for that."

"Just because we didn't work out together as a couple doesn't mean I want to see you get in trouble or lose your license." She explained. "I meant it when I said I would keep your secret and I will continue to keep your secret."

"You're a hell of a woman." He smiled. "Tell me, have you ever considered leaving your firm and going to one that is actually a major player in the city?"

"Like who?" She chuckled.

"Like Smith and Kline." He said before taking a sip of his water. "Look, just think about it. We could work together. We have a senior partner position available. I can get you in and we could have lunch more often."

"You better be careful. It sure sounds like you're just offering that as a bribe to keep me quiet." She pointed out.

"It's not." He assured her. "I've learned my lesson on that. I truly just want to work with you and you deserve to be at a better firm. You are a superstar lawyer. Everyone in this city is talking about you right now. Florrick Bastin and James is going nowhere. Smith and Kline is more of a powerhouse. You belong somewhere you can truly shine."

"I'm ok where I am right now." She told him. "So thank you, but no thank you."

"Ok. If you ever change your mind, the offer stands." He told her.

"Thank you." She nodded. "Can we please get back to the settlement talks? I don't think either of our clients want this to go to trial."

"We can talk about that later. This case is simple and it won't take long to get a deal together." He insisted. "Let's talk about you. What's new with you? Are you seeing anyone?"

That was a sore subject for her since her fight with Harvey earlier in the day. Rather than getting into it, she chose to tell a half-truth in order to try to get him to leave her alone. "It's complicated."

"I would imagine it is." David laughed.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well I would assume the man who has been staring at us for the last twenty minutes has something to do with the 'it's complicated' statement. Am I right?"

She turned her head and saw that Harvey was at a table not too far away from theirs. They locked eyes and she saw red. "Excuse me for a moment. I need to take care of something." She stood up from the table and took a deep breath before walking over to Harvey's table.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She asked in a hushed tone.

"Louis told me this place has a fantastic prime rib sandwich so I came to try it out." Harvey answered with a smirk.

"This isn't a joke." She sighed. "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to see you."

"How did you even find out I would be here?"

"I called your friends' firm and found out from his secretary." He admitted.

"Why go to all of that trouble?" She asked, leaning in. "Did you want to watch me flirt with him? Or did you want to watch me drag him to the bathroom?"

"No. I didn't want to see that. But in all fairness it didn't look like you were flirting." He pointed out with a smirk on his face.

"Ok." She sighed. "Look, I don't know why you are here and I don't care to know anymore. If you magically show up in public where I am like this again I will file charges of stalking because since we aren't in a relationship you have no reason to just show up like this."

"Rebecca…please just let me explain…" He touched her arm.

"No." She shook her head and pulled her arm away like his touch was made of fire. "You don't get to accuse me of being a whore twice and then try to explain it away like it doesn't matter with that stupid grin of yours. You said we were done, Harvey. So we're done. Accept it and move on." Without looking back, she returned to her table.