no more (keeping score)

They're both doubled over in laughter, a little less than drunk, but definitely more than tipsy as they wait for Ray to pull around and collect them.

Another year, another dinner at Del Posto celebrating the anniversary of Donna coming to his desk. He makes a stupid joke about the waiter being like Louis with hair and she snorts with laughter, sending them both into another giggle fit, her hand clutching his arm for stability, and because they can get away with innocent touches under the guise of having too much wine.

She looks up, wiping at the tears of laughter collecting in the corner of her eye when she sees him and gasps.

Harvey's head shoots up, immediately scanning her face to see if she's in pain, then quickly running his eyes over her body to double check. Her face is ashen, eyes wide with panic, and the hand clasped around his arm tenses.

"Donna?" he questions, trying to get her attention back on him. "Hey. Donna. What's going on? What's wrong?"

Her eyes snap back to his, still wide and startled but he sees her trying to put on her stage face. "What? No, nothing. Nothing's wrong, I'm fine." But her eyes keep slanting to the well dressed man standing in the doorway, helping a woman into her coat.

"Yeah, okay. I may not be Donna, but I can read you pretty well and you are not fine. What is it? Who's that guy?"

"It's nothing, Harvey, drop it." she snaps, hand releasing her grip on his sleeve, flipping her hair back and squaring her shoulders into what he could only define as her warrior stance. But he watches as those shoulders quickly, albeit subtly, roll back in on themselves as the man and woman cling tightly to each other as they make their way further out of the restaurant.

"Donna either you tell me what's going on, or I go over there and beat that guy's ass." He insists.

"What? Why would you do that?! You don't even know him."

"But apparently you do. And since you won't tell me what he did, and since I know you can't be in the wrong because you're perfect, the only logical conclusion is that he did something to upset you. Thus, I beat his ass." He shrugs simply with a smirk, as if he's talked her through how to solve a math problem.

"I just...ugh. Harvey!" she groans in exasperation. "He's an ex. We dated for about a year. We had a huge fight one night when I came home from work late and he told me I needed to try harder to show him how I love him and then maybe I'd be lovable. I walked out and the next day I caught him in my bed. With her."

He's fairly certain there's literal steam coming out of his ears by the time she's finished. He looks down at her through the red-hot anger clouding his vision and sees her eyes glossy with hurt and shame and that's all it takes for him to snap.

She must've anticipated his reaction, though, because she's already got a firm grip on both of his arms when he turns his body in the direction of the man in question who looks up at the sudden movement, eyes widening when they land on Donna.

"Harvey, no! Please don't!" She pleads, doing her damndest to hold his much larger frame in place. "He's already seen me, you going over there will just make this ten times more humiliating for me. Please."

He lets out a low growl but steadies himself, knowing he would never do anything against her wishes, but wanting nothing more than to beat the ever loving shit out of the asshole who made her feel, for a second, that she wasn't the best thing on this earth.

Another idea pops into his head when he cuts his eyes to the asshole again, just to see him checking out Donna from behind. Time to show the asshole what he's missing. Harvey steps into her space, one arm around her waist, the other drifting towards her face.

"What are you doing?" She questions, taking a startled step back.

"Would you just stay still and play along?" He mumbles lowly, pulling her further into him, running a finger down her cheek as her breath catches. Her gaze falters, but his doesn't as he stares directly into her eyes, voice loud enough for the asshole behind them to hear him say, "Tell me again how you love me."

He has her pulled so tightly to him, she has no choice but to rest her hands on his chest, fingers working their way into the fabric of the sweater he's wearing under his coat.

"Harvey, I-"

"Just got with it." he whispers with a sly wink and subtle nod in asshole's direction, before raising his voice again. "Donna. Tell me how you love me."

She blinks away the surprise, having to channel very little of her acting skills to play along. She raises her hands to wrap around his shoulders, fingers running gently through the hair at the nape of his neck and she swears she sees his eyes darken ever so slightly.

"I love you in all the ways."

He watches from the corner of his eye as asshole usher his date into the cab with a huff, slamming the door behind them. He smirks at the man through the glass of the window, a clear message of you fucked up and missed out painted on his face.

He glances back at her, sending her a slow smile, thumb still running gently over her cheek, as he leans forward and grazes her lips with his own. This wasn't part of his plan, certainly not with asshole gone and no one to put on a show for, but she's standing there looking every bit of perfection and he just can't spend another second of her thinking she's shouldn't be the most loved woman to have ever existed.

He brushes a kiss against her mouth once more, only pulling away enough to make sure she's looking at him when he says,

"Ditto."