One Flight Down

Chapter Forty-Six

"Ok we are here again tonight to try and figure out who the new managing partner of Specter Zane Litt Sullivan is going to be." Harvey said, taking charge of the meeting. "Who wants to vote first?"

"I'll vote first." Robert volunteered. "I vote for myself."

"And I vote for myself." Harvey said, looking at Victoria and then Louis. "So it comes down to you two again. Victoria? Who do you vote for?"

He watched as she looked first at Robert, then at Louis and finally at him. There was an expression on her face that he didn't quite recognize. It worried him. "I vote for Robert." She said quietly.

He sighed. That wasn't unexpected, though not what he hoped would happen. He looked over at Louis. "Your turn."

"I vote for Robert too."

He looked at Louis and could feel his temper starting to flare up. "What the hell is going on here?"

"I'm sorry Harvey." Louis apologized.

"You're sorry?" He scoffed. "Louis…"

"That's three votes for me and one for you." Robert summed it up. "Sorry Harvey, but majority rules."

"What the hell did you just do, Louis?" He yelled, ignoring Robert for the time being.

"I did what I had to for the firm." Louis sighed.

"Bullshit!" He yelled. "Tell me right now. What did Robert promise you in exchange for your vote?"

"Nothing." Louis argued. "It wasn't even Robert who asked this time."

He stopped and then glared at Victoria, who was staring at the desk. "You did this? You were the one who got Louis to vote for Robert?"

"I did what I had to for the firm." She said, looking over at his face. "I'm sorry Harvey."

"You're sorry? Oh well that just makes everything better then because you're sorry. Congratulations Robert on turning everyone against me. You must be thrilled." He scoffed, leaving the room. He headed towards the elevator, aware of the fact that Victoria was chasing after him. "Leave me alone right now."

"I can't." She told him, grabbing his arm when he stopped at the elevator bank.

"I don't think you are going to want to be around me right now." He warned.

"Listen to me Harvey. No one is trying to turn people against you."

"Well it sure as shit feels that way." He pulled his arm out of her grasp. "Why did you do it? Huh? Because of some blind loyalty to Robert?"

"No." She argued. "I mean, yes a small part of it is loyalty to Robert. But the main part is because I don't think you really want it. I listened to you explain it but I think you only wanted it because you wanted to prove to Jessica and everyone else that you could do it. That's not a good enough reason."

"Now you're some kind of shrink? You think you know me well enough to make assumptions like that?" He scoffed. "Well thanks for the free evaluation but you couldn't be farther from the truth."

"Ok. Then tell me. Why did you really want to be managing partner?" She paused. "No bullshit this time—just the truth. Why? Why was it so important to you?"

He sighed, unable to put it into words.

"Exactly. That pause right there tells me everything I need to know." She exclaimed. "Let's face it. You wouldn't have been happy as managing partner and deep down you know it. You may not want to admit it, but you know it."

"Am I supposed to thank you for what you just did in there? Do you think you've saved me somehow from being unhappy? Is that how you have justified what you did in your mind? Because all I know is that you betrayed me and then somehow you got Louis to betray me too. Congratulations on that by the way because I thought he was my friend. I never thought he would change his vote like that. Someday you'll have to explain what kind of Jedi mind trick you did on him to get him to switch his vote."

"Look, I know you are pissed off…"

"You're damn right I'm pissed off!" He yelled. "You know I don't like people going behind my back and betraying me. Yet you did it anyway!"

"I don't think it was a betrayal!"

"Well I do." He informed her.

"Well if that constitutes as a betrayal then I'm justified in being pissed off with you because you betrayed me too." She challenged him.

"How?" He challenged her.

"I don't appreciate it when the guy I'm dating goes behind my back and starts telling people that we are dating when I asked him not to."

Shit. He was really hoping she wouldn't find out about that.

"I also don't appreciate Louis using our relationship as a way to try and blackmail me into voting for you."

"What blackmail?" He hoped to God Louis didn't go through with it.

"You know what I am talking about. He said you knew about it."

"And I told him not to do it." He sighed. "Goddammit. He actually tried to blackmail you anyway?"

"Yes." She nodded. "He did."

"I'm sorry about that." He apologized, calming down for a moment. "I told him not to do it. I thought he realized that it wasn't necessary."

"Apparently he didn't listen to you, which is probably another good reason you aren't managing partner."

"Vic…" Any progress he made calming down was disregarded from that statement.

"You know Harvey, you're not the only one who is pissed off right now. Aside from Louis trying to blackmail me, let's not forget about the fact that you have completely disregarded my wishes. You knew I didn't want Louis to know about us yet. He was the one person I didn't want knowing because I didn't want that knowledge to cloud his judgment of me. But you told him anyway. Who else have you told? Donna? Mike? Rachel? Robert?"

He realized he needed to come clean. "I've told Mike but I told him not to tell Rachel. I'm not suicidal so I wouldn't tell Robert. And as for Donna, I didn't have to tell her. She's like a cross between a psychic and an empath…she just knew without me saying anything."

"So almost everyone in your life knows about us?" She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment. "You just couldn't keep it a secret like I asked?"

"Well forgive me for being happy about our relationship!" He scoffed. "Honestly, I thought keeping it a secret was dumb. Ok? I'll go ahead and say it." He knew that saying it like that was wrong and would only make her even angrier, but at this moment he couldn't care less.

"So it's dumb to go along with something your girlfriend when she believes in something strongly? You'd rather lie about being on the same page and then go behind her back to tell anyone you want, betraying her confidence?" She scoffed. "You know, you are making it really hard not to be pissed off at you right now."

"So is that what happened? You got pissed at me so you decided to hurt me back by convincing Louis to vote against me?" He assumed.

"No, that's not the way it happened." She sighed.

"Well at least now I know why you've been so distracted the past two days." It all made sense now. He wondered if she had been planning it for a while or if she decided on the spur of the moment to betray him like this.

"Can we just go back to your place or my place and talk this through? Yelling at each other isn't going to solve anything."

"No. I don't think we can." He shook his head and pushed the button for the elevator. "You don't like the guy you're dating doing that kind of thing and I don't like the woman I'm dating betraying me? Then there is one easy way to fix that. We aren't dating anymore. Ok? So now we don't have to worry about that."

"You can't mean that." She scoffed. "Harvey…"

"I do mean it." He assured her. "You should know better than anyone that I can't tolerate betrayal."

"But this wasn't a real betrayal…"

"I guess that's just a difference of opinion between us." He shrugged. "Because I do think of this as a betrayal."

"Harvey, you're mad. I get it. I'm mad too. But don't do this. We can get past this. I don't want to break up." She pleaded.

"Too bad. You did this. Not me." He said before getting into the elevator. "We're done."


Victoria walked back to her office in a daze, unsure if she should go after Harvey or let him cool off. She decided to give him a little time to cool off. It would also give her a chance to cool off too because she said some things she wished she could take back. She was hoping that she would be calmer when she confronted him about telling people they were dating. But he pushed her buttons to the point where she couldn't stay calm anymore.

She knew he would be upset. She knew he would go straight to the betrayal word. But she didn't expect him to break up with her. It stung and she was reminded all too well of what happened back in high school when he broke up with her. She sat at her desk and sighed, turning her chair so that she could look out the window behind her.

"Fuck…this is a mess."

She tried to believe that everything would be alright. But this situation made her unable to convince herself that everything would be alright because right now everything sucked.

"You want to go celebrate?" Robert's voice boomed.

She saw his figure in the reflection of the glass but didn't turn around to face him. "No."

He chuckled. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"Not now please. I'd like to be alone for a while."

"Look, I know Harvey might be mad right now but in the long run…"

"I said not now Robert!" She yelled, turning around in her chair. She immediately felt bad about yelling and sighed again. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath to calm down. "I'm sorry."

"What's wrong? Are you really this upset about Harvey being mad?" Robert questioned. "Because it's going to be fine. He'll get over it once he does his brooding thing."

"I don't think he will get over it. He broke up with me." She informed him, seeing the look of confusion on his face.

"You two were dating again?"

"Yeah." She nodded.

"For how long?" He asked.

"A few weeks." She sighed.

"But you didn't say anything."

"I was trying to keep things professional in the office." She explained, getting up from her chair. "Besides, I know that you don't like him and I didn't want to hear how disappointed you were in me."

"It's not that I don't like him…" He trailed off.

"What would you call it then?" She questioned. "You haven't been very nice to him since the whole Mike situation and you've made it clear from day one you don't think I should date him. You should be thrilled we aren't together anymore. And you got managing partner now too. It's a great day for you so I understand why you want to go celebrate. You've gotten everything you wanted. Congratulations. But for me, this is a very bad day because I essentially had to choose between you and Harvey. I chose you and it cost me the man I love. So forgive me if I don't want to go celebrate that tonight."

"Victoria, I won't lie that I don't think you should be dating Harvey, but that's just because I only want the best for you. I know about what happened after he broke up with you the first time. I know how deeply it affected you and I know how that affected the rest of your relationships. I don't want to see you get hurt again." He explained. "Harvey is a complicated man and yes I think you could do better. But in the end, it's your decision. You are the one who has to decide who makes you happy and I'll support you with whatever you decide."

"I appreciate that but it doesn't matter anymore." She shrugged.

"I still think he will get over it. And as for managing partner, I'm sorry I put you in such a difficult spot." He apologized.

"It's fine." She shrugged again.

"Obviously it isn't." He argued. "You're upset."

"I'll get over it like I've gotten over everything else in my life. Look, can we talk later?" She asked, getting up. "Go celebrate with Laura that you won because I'm not in the mood to be around people right now." Without a second glance, she left the office.