Okay, to keep it short: a huge THANK YOU to all of you who reviewed the last chapter (should I name you? You probably know your own profile names... I feel like responding to your reviews takes too much space here, but also that I should respond, even if it's just with a couple of words - maybe I'll try doing that with private messages in the future, if you don't mind) and the chapters before that. I especially would like to thank kasinka613 and hikeyosemite, who have been here from the very beginning of the story.
Enjoy!
A Very Short Epilogue in which Harvey curses himself for choosing an Italian restaurant
'Okay, now I know never to take you to dinners with clients' summarized Harvey and filled their glasses with more wine. 'Or at least forbid you to order anything containing tomato sauce'.
Mike grinned at him, not ceasing to tuck in his spaghetti Bolognese, now and then reaching for a napkin to take off some of the thick sauce from his lips, chin and — to Harvey's utter terror — nose. He must have been sick of the hospital food, since from the moment he had been served his meal up to now he had seemed not to even bother to breathe, let alone talk. Harvey took a sip of the wine and continued to watch his associate with a mixture of disgust, amusement and fascination, and maybe something else he had trouble putting into words, but it was somehow related to watching someone tremble and bleed on the floor one night and devour spaghetti the other.
Mike looked up from the plate and must have seen something in Harvey's face that made an impression on him, because he stopped eating for once, his fork in the air, halfway to his mouth.
'Earth to Mike, come in'.
He smiled with a nostalgic kind of smile, more to himself than to Harvey, and resumed his attention-consuming activity that was eating, his gaze back on the plate and its contents, but with the little smile still on his face.
'You know' he said, swallowing the spaghetti, 'I'm getting suspicious here'.
Harvey furrowed an eyebrow and took a sip of the wine.
'You took me out for dinner' Mike started counting, gesturing with his fingers. 'You talked with me. You smiled at me with that smile of yours. Are you trying to close me?'
Harvey was to respond with some snarky remark, but instead he choked on the wine which happened to almost bring Mike down to tears. As if there had been something funny in the fact that your boss was about to die from oxygen deprivation.
'You were saying?' asked the kid to irritate him even further.
'I was saying' he coughed to restore normal speech 'that I close clients, rivals or people in the position of power. I wouldn't bother with you'.
'But you did' Mike shook his head in amusement. 'You are trying to close me'.
Reflecting that opposing was not worth the hassle anymore, Harvey instead admitted to the crime with a smug smile:
'I closed the shit out of you'.
His associate emptied his plate and requested a desert, since Harvey was closing him anyway and had to grant all his wishes, then Harvey explained that was not what closing was about, then Mike raised an eyebrow and they ordered desert, and Mike seemed very happy when he was devouring his chocolate mousse, very not-dying, very not-thinking-about-his-grandmother and very not-buying-drugs, and generally very well-closed. Mission accomplished.
'Well, this has been, I guess, my greatest accomplishment as a lawyer' concluded the well-closed. 'Talking you into taking me out for dinner...'
'You've never talked me into doing anything, Donna talked me into that'.
'Yeah, but it were my actions that led you to agreeing' the kid seemed to be awfully pleased with himself, so Harvey opposed once again:
'Which doesn't count as much, since we both know you didn't do any of those things with the sole purpose of convincing me to take you out for dinner'.
'Well, that just proves I'm even a better lawyer. I do those things subconsciously' Mike hesitated for a moment, searching for the perfect expression to gloat. 'I'm a natural'.
Something told Harvey it would be below his dignity to grant that with an answer, so instead he indulged in his crème-brullee, quite aware of the fact that he was being carefully observed by his associate, feeling his gaze shifting from his forehead to his chin, something very mathematical about the gaze that made the impression that Mike was calculating something in his head, adding and subtracting values on the basis of Harvey's facial expressions.
'You want to know what I think?' Mike finally uttered, by the tone of his voice one could easily come to the conclusion the results of the convoluted operations had met his expectations, he ignored Harvey's negative response and continued 'I think it was me who closed you'.
Thank heavens for Harvey not having any wine in his mouth to choke on, because that time it would have been deadly.
'No-one' he made sure he stressed the two syllables strongly enough and then repeated them just to be on the safe side, 'no-one gets to close Harvey Specter'.
'I closed you' said Mike with a mixture of pride and utter disbelief, and grinned at him from up the chocolate mousse.
Damn it, Harvey thought, giving the kid a sceptical glare.
He bloody did.
I hope you enjoyed the story throughout and that we shall 'meet again' :)
