She had been seeing Jonathan for about a year now. He was kind, considerate, and doted on her when he could, though he wasn't the most exciting person. However, her last two relationships had a bit too much excitement which ended up leaving her alone and unhappy so she appreciated how safe Jonathan felt. He was always happy to attend any social gatherings she was invited to, so when he asked her to accompany him to the wedding of his old friend from college, she had no trouble accepting. And when she heard it was to be at a lush estate in the Hamptons, she was more than keen to go shopping for a dress, imagining all dresses and the stores she could visit to the point of failing to ask who the friend was.
On the day of the wedding, they drove up to the estate and she was immediately taken at how beautiful and glamorous the house and grounds looked. She would absolutely love to live in a place like this. Maybe someday. While she wasn't thinking of matrimony with Jonathan at the present time, it was still on her mind and between their careers, a place like this wasn't completely out of reach.
After exiting Jonathan's car to allow the valets to park it, they walked into the house, following other wedding guests. She could see the chairs and flowers set up outside for the outdoor ceremony and she couldn't resist smiling. She was so taken with it that she didn't read the program Jonathan handed her after he signed the guestbook. She held onto it as they continued to walk in and looked around at the decor of the house. She looked down at a beautiful wooden table in the hallway and commented to Jonathan how exquisite the piece was. As they were looking down at the table together, if she had just looked up and to her left, she would have noticed a shorter, balding man walking by looking fairly agitated. They continued on, following the guests in front of them and were close to the seating area.
"Why don't you go find us a couple of seats? I am just going to say a quick hello to an old fraternity brother." Jonathan suggests. She agrees and decides on a couple of seats towards the back. Since she didn't know anyone, she was fine with blending into the crowd. After sitting down, she continued to look around at the surroundings, turning to her right to look at a flower arrangement, not noticing a redhead in a black dress going up to a blond woman in a silky pink dress to talk.
As she continued to look around, a petite brunette stepped up next to her and asked if the seats to her left were taken.
"No, not at all." She answered with a smile. She had placed her purse and the program on the chair to her right for Jonathan.
"Thanks. Are you here for the bride or groom?" The brunette inquired.
"My boyfriend went to university with the groom."
"Law school?"
"No, undergraduate."
"Nice. I gotta say, I wasn't expecting this from him. This place is gorgeous. But he always was a little over the top."
"Oh, so you know the groom?"
"Yeah, unfortunately. He isn't my favorite person but he is going to be family soon, so I will try to be pleasant enough today since it's his wedding day." The brunette tried to smile though her smile was a little forced. At least until another brunette started walking in their direction. Both brunette's faces broke out into such a peaceful and sincere smile as they looked at each other.
"Could you have found seats any farther back?" The woman who just sat down to the other brunette complaining but with a smile on her face.
"You know Moby doesn't like me to begin with and he sure doesn't like me dating his sister so I didn't want my face to be right in front of him during the ceremony."
"Please don't call him that." the brunette farthest away says while rolling her eyes, though she couldn't help smirking a little at the nickname.
"Hey, he came up with that name all by himself. Moby goddamn Dick. So how can I not call him that? It actually sounds kind of cool, especially in comparison to his real name. Louis" She accentuates Louis with a bit of a head shake and sneer but also with a loving pat on the other's knee. The two brunettes quietly laugh as they lean on each other's foreheads. Clearly smitten with one another.
When the name Louis leaves the brunette's mouth, the blonde, sitting to her right, immediately puts her head up and her eyes open widely.
Louis.
Obviously it is a common enough name, but it holds an unhappy connection to her last relationship. A Louis had been her attorney and business partner of her last boyfriend. A boyfriend who had broken her heart when he chose to keep the other woman in his life despite knowing that it would mean the end of the relationship with herself.
She scrambles to the program she placed on the seat beside her. Who is the groom? And then she sees clear as day that she has stepped into a nightmare.
Louis Litt is the name of the groom. Louis, a college friend of Jonathan's. Louis, partner in a law firm. A law firm that also houses one Harvey Specter. Harvey, her last boyfriend. Harvey, the one that got away. Harvey, the best man.
Oh god. She thought to herself. If she could make herself disappear, she would. Of all the places to be thrown back into the sphere of Harvey, a wedding was not high on her list. And if Louis and Harvey were here, surely Donna is here also.
Partly wondering if they still work together, partly wondering if they ARE together. Maybe they just work together, both unhappily living in a world where they won't have each other and won't have anyone else. Maybe they tried and it failed miserably. While she isn't vindictive, part of her does hope that they experienced at least a portion of the hurt that she felt at the end of that relationship.
She knows that Jonathan will be returning to her side soon so she tried to push down her feelings in the hope that he won't see how she has been affected and won't have to explain what has led her to this state. She also knows that since Louis is the groom, many people from the law firm would be here, some that she knows, so she puts her head down looking like she is reading the program in the hope that her hair will hide her from recognition. She tried reading the rest of the program but is stuck on the line where it indicates the best man.
Unfortunately she is not in control of where her thoughts go as she is thinking of Harvey and is at a wedding so naturally she combines the two. Would they have been on the point of marriage if their relationship had been allowed to continue? Maybe. Though she was well aware that Harvey never seemed the marrying kind. But he had asked her to move in so maybe his view on marriage would have changed too.
She is so wrapped up in her thoughts that she fails to immediately notice that Jonathan has taken his place in the seat beside her. "Ceremony is about to begin." He loudly whispers to her. She looks up at him and he gives her a kind smile. "Great." is all she can manage to give in response. She tries to give him a smile in return, hoping to mask the turmoil she was currently suffering.
She hears music begin to play and sees people getting into place. She doesn't want to look but knows it will look odd if she doesn't turn to look in the direction of the aisle. And that is when she sees him. All dressed up in a tuxedo and looking as fine as he did when they were together. Actually maybe even better. She notices him say something to the woman on his arm and that is when she notices who said woman is. Donna. Donna looking absolutely beautiful in a black gown. Donna, the reason she wasn't with Harvey anymore. She pushed down her anger and bitterness and tried to remember she was here with her boyfriend. But it was difficult, especially with the ease with which Donna and Harvey were walking down the aisle arm in arm. Then she hears the two next to her say something which causes her eyes to water.
"Can you believe that those two finally got smart and realized that they were always meant for each other?" The brunette farthest from her says.
"Can you believe that we were both with Harvey?" She giggles a little as she says this. "What the heck were we thinking?"
"I don't know but I do know that I have never been happier." the other brunette replies as they stare into each other's eyes and smile. Clearly these two were in love.
She is surprised, though not shocked, to hear that some of Harvey's conquests were in the room. He admitted that he had slept with a lot of women, probably half of New York. Though she takes a momentary delight at the thought of Harvey's reaction if he were to look back at their row and see a line of women that he had bedded over the years. Or Donna's reaction.
She wonders how long (or really how short) it took for Donna to run after Harvey after he had chosen Donna over her.
Almost as if the brunette to her left could hear her inner monologue. . . ."Sure took Harvey long enough to finally go after her. Jeez, they look like they've been together for years, which in a way I guess they have. But only two months? And Louis told me they have been basically living together for a month and a half. But I guess they are making up for lost time. I don't know about you, but when I found the love of my life, I sure didn't wait around for years, did I?" She keeps her eyes faced towards the bride and groom but squeezes the woman to her left's hand.
Two months. That's it? And living together after two weeks?
Suddenly there is a commotion up front. She hadn't been paying attention but hears the end part of vows and then the bride and groom hastily exiting.
The two brunettes exit the row to see what is going on. Jonathan says in a low tone of voice "I wonder if she went into labor?" Labor? She hadn't really been paying attention to the ceremony and hadn't even noticed the bride and that she was very clearly pregnant but once the bride and groom had made their way out, she saw that indeed the bride was heavily pregnant.
"I hope everything will be ok." She responds. "Perhaps we should go since the wedding is clearly over."
At that moment, the man who had conducted the ceremony began speaking. As soon as she heard his German accent, she sank a little deeper in her chair. Not only was she trying to avoid the groom, the best man, the maid of honor, and probably several guests, she now had to try and avoid the gaze of one of her colleagues. She didn't know whether Stan knew any details of her relationship with Harvey, but she didn't want to stay there any longer and find out.
Stan let everyone know that Louis wanted everyone to stay if they wanted to and enjoy the food and drink and that he would let everyone know any update regarding Sheila as soon as there was one.
"Hey. Why don't we take Louis up on his offer and check out what food he shelled out for his wedding, at least for a little bit. I bet it is top of the line. Plus there are a few people from school that I haven't seen in years that I would love to catch up with. Is that ok? I promise we won't stay too late."
"Ok." She knew she was tempting fate and increasing the chances of running into someone from the firm, but she didn't want to disappoint Jonathan. So they moved to the reception area where she tried to steer Jonathan to a table out of the way to make it a little harder for anyone to spot her.
She, however, didn't notice that Gretchen, Louis's trusted secretary, had clocked her from almost the first moment she walked onto the estate. She knew who the woman was since Harvey had begun seeing her professionally, through when he saw her personally. She also knew how that woman's presence had negatively affected both the firm and those in the firm that she considered family. Gretchen had no idea why she was here but was determined to make sure that woman didn't make a scene, alerting Mike to her presence so that they could work together and surreptitiously steering Louis away so he wouldn't blow a gasket but mainly concerned with keeping Harvey and Donna away from her.
After finding a seat sufficiently far enough away that it was unlikely she would be discovered, she sat down. Unfortunately their seats gave a clear view to a table near the house where Harvey and Donna had taken up residence, sitting and talking. When Jonathan got up to go get them some drinks and food, the two brunettes she sat with at the wedding asked if they could join the table. They also seemed to want to stay out of the action of the other wedding guests and were in their own world, population two. Pleasant small talk was exchanged when a blond younger man joined the table where Donna and Harvey were at. She recognized him as Mike once she took a closer look.
She was just checking her phone for messages when she heard a gasp come from the two women. She looked up and saw that they were both faced in the direction of the table with Donna and Harvey. When she looked over at the table herself, she saw a sight she never expected, but secretly hoped for herself, to see. Harvey was down on one knee in front of Donna.
"Oh my god, he's going to do it." The shorter brunette stated with her jaw wide open. "Hell must be freezing over."
Tears again started pooling in her eyes. She knew that Harvey and her weren't meant to be, but it still hurt seeing him propose to another woman, especially to Donna. And to stick that knife in her heart a little deeper, she then heard Harvey announce to the crowd that not only was he going to marry Donna, but was going to do it tonight.
Everyone around started clapping, including the two women at her table. Jonathan had just reached the table with their drinks and a plate of food to share. He set them down and started clapping himself at the announcement. She felt obligated to join in so she gave the most half-hearted clap that she could as her arms and her hands, along with her heart, felt like cement.
"Wow. Never thought I would see a proposal at a wedding. Crazy, huh?" Jonathan asks as he sits down.
"Yeah. I guess." She responds. Inside, she is heartbroken. She hadn't been pining for Harvey and was seeing Jonathan, but seeing the possibility of ever reuniting with him being inextricably taken away right in front of her is hurting more than she thought possible. Harvey seeing a number of his conquests all in the same row might have been a nightmare for Harvey, but this is truly her worst nightmare. She takes a few deep breaths to try and control her reaction. Jonathan knows that she has had relationships in the past which ended badly but she never gave him any specific details, let alone that the identity of one of those relationships is just across the yard.
After a couple of moments trying to collect herself, while Jonathan munches on some of the food he had brought to the table completely unaware of the pain being suffered right next to him, she turns and suggests that maybe they should go since Louis wasn't going to return and the upcoming wedding wasn't really one they were invited to.
"Are you sure? It might be kind of interesting to see. You never know, maybe it'll give me some ideas." He smiles and quietly laughs as he looks at her. He means it as a joke as they haven't discussed nor are either of them in a place where marriage is actually on their mind.
"Yeah. Why don't we let the others celebrate this and we can go. Maybe we can avoid a lot of the traffic you were worried about." She gives him a smile that she hopes will be sufficient for him not to ask any further questions.
"Ok. Would actually love not to have to sit on the highway for hours if possible. Yeah, let's get out of here. I'll catch up with Louis another time." Jonathan responds, both standing up and gathering their things.
They make their way out and pass by a window in the house. She looks up and sees Harvey and Donna having a quiet moment hugging each other. Donna is turned away from the window while Harvey is mostly facing the window. If he held his head up from its place on Donna's shoulder, he would have seen her as she walked out of the storybook romance that is Donna and Harvey to which she hoped she would never return. While Jonathan may or may not be her future, Harvey clearly was not.
Harvey was otherwise occupied. Harvey was basking in all that is Donna, smiling as he realizes that by the end of the day, she would be his wife, his ultimate dream (or in his words, goal) since the day he met her. Sweet dreams are made of this. Who am I to disagree?
Forgive me taking a few liberties with things. I wanted to write a story about the one SUITS character I dislike (not that this isn't abundantly apparent throughout many of my stories) while not mentioning them at all. :) But I also didn't want her presence to affect my two favorites and their happiness. And as for a certain couple that I put together, well I thought they could be good together.
And in case anyone is wondering, Harvey's worst nightmare is anything bad ever happening to Donna in any way, shape, or form.