The cab ride to Harvey's place had passed in awkward silence, neither of them knowing how to handle the situation. This was certainly unknown territory.
Staying the night. Together. That was on of the things that they've avoided at all costs but craved so much at the same time.
Harvey was the one to break the silence as the cab was already turning around the corner of the street where his apartment was located.
"At what place do you want to order?", he asked and looked over to her. Ripped out of her thoughts she only answered "I don't know, I feel like the on who took the hits should decide", she gave back nonchalantly, trying to ease the rising tension.
"So you're letting me order because you pity me?", he said fake-hurt.
"I am not denying that", she tried to sound serious.
"But what do you want?", he decided to ask again.
"Please, you know what I want", she answered with a knowing tone in her voice.
"Shitty-Thai place it is", he flashed a soft smile at her.
"You know me", she said while getting out of the cab.
"I sure do", he walked around it, right beside her and placed his hand on the small of her back. They got to his penthouse in silence. This time it was more of a comfortable silence where nothing needed to be said. He unlocked the door and his hand still rested on her.
The light in his penthouse has been dimmed and only the lights of the other skyscrapers were reflecting on the ginormous glass windows.
"How about I'll take a shower and you order whatever you like", Harvey said with his hand still resting on the small of her back, the two of them closer than usual.
She was left in his huge living area all on her own and even though it was barely decorated, it felt homy to her.
She ordered noodles for both of them and sat down on the bar stools on his kitchen counter and observed the loft closer. Now that she looked at it, there were a couple of things that she would change.
The table next to the couch was too empty, a cactus might match the earthy theme that the entire apartment was painted in. Maybe a few more pictures on the wall, more personal stuff in general would make it more comfortable.
Thinking of comfortable, by now she just wanted to get out of that tight dress so she jumped off the bar stool and made her way towards his bedroom.
It felt odd due to her never having been there before.
She had visited his apartment a few times in the past but she had made the bedroom off limits for good reasons but now it was inevitable because she needed to ask Harvey for something to wear. Why didn't they took a quick stop at her apartment to grab some of her stuff, she thought.
Things like this didn't made it easier when they had to spend the entire night together on very few square meters.
"Harvey…?", she asked in a curious tone, standing a little lost in his master bedroom.
"Do you need anything?", he gave back the question from the bathroom, water running in the shower and she failed to not imagine him in there.
"Uhm, do you have anything to wear for me, a sweatshirt or something like that… We forgot to bring some of my stuff…", this was weird, she thought but there was no way around it if she didn't want to be stuck in her uncomfortable tight dress and high heels. This really wasn't the right attire for the night.
"Uhm, yeah sure, take anything you need. Shirts are in the top left shelf", he gave back from the bathroom connected to his bedroom.
"Thank you", she voiced in his direction and opened the shelve hesitantly. It surprised her a bit that he color coordinated them on different stacks; white, light grey, dark grey, blue, black, crimson and olive green. The man really had taste.
She picked out a thick, long sleeve crimson sweater that she never saw him wearing before. In fact she had barely ever seen him in anything but his suits which by the way he looked insanely good in.
She also opted for a pair of his sports socks that obviously were too big on her but she didn't care. It has gotten chilly at his place and she didn't mind Harvey seeing her like that.
After she had changed the delivery arrived and she placed it on the kitchen counter.
Harvey by now has gotten out of the shower and was changing into some grey sweatpants and a matching sweatshirt when he heard her humming some musical song that he somewhere knew from. He was the polar opposite of Donna when it came to cultural stuff like that.
She adored the theatre and literature and all of the artsy stuff that he despised.
But when all of this came from her, he suddenly started to like it.
He would sit through four hours of Shakespeare just for her.
A smile spread on his face when he approached her in the kitchen while she was putting their food on a plate, opening a bottle of wine for her and scotch for him.
She knew him so well.
He loved the things that he saw.
Her in one of his favorite sweaters that looked way better on her than on him, carelessly rummaging through his kitchen.
She was what he was missing when he was sitting in his apartment, late at night staring into the dark empty space.
"Hey stranger", she had turned around, hair swinging around her shoulders.
"Are you wearing my socks?", he asked with a grin on his face.
"It's cold in here", she gave back nonchalantly.
"Yeah, because you aren't wearing any pants", he didn't mind her long legs being exposed at all. The fabric of his sweater wasn't covering much but it's not like he has never seen that before.
"You're such a prude", she handed him a glass of scotch and jumped up to the kitchen counter where she crossed her legs, grabbed her plate and started eating.
He sat right next to her on one of the bar stools and started eating as well, clearly a little bit distracted by her.
"Are you okay with sleeping in my sheets or should I change them?", he asked after they've been eating in silence for a little while.
"Of course I am going to sleep on the couch", he quickly added after he saw the confused look on her face.
"First of all, of course I am okay with that and second of all there's no way I am letting you sleep on that uncomfortable couch. You need get some good rest!", she demanded and before he could object to any of what she had just said, she continued, "Your bed is big enough for us both, there's no room for discussion and playing the gentleman here", she said forcefully.
"Okay", was the only thing he could say.
Sleeping in a bed with her made him suddenly nervous.
"And what do you mean with playing the gentleman?!", he asked a little offended but she just let out a laugh.
"We all know that this gentleman thing is just one of your acts to get woman into bed with you", she said in a knowing tone.
"Yes, but like you see, it works", he let out with a smirk.
"You're such an idiot", she gave back with a huge smile on her face.
"No but seriously, are you okay with this?", he asked in a soft tone.
"Why shouldn't I?", she gave back with a chuckle.
"I don't know…", he looked down to his plate.
"It's not like that never happened before", and she immediately regretted saying that. The other time and even talking about it was forbidden territory.
"True and you snore", the cheshire cat grin started to spread on his face again. He directly looked up to her shocked face.
"I do not", she gave back, trying to stay serious.
"No, no but it's cute", he voiced in an amused tone.
"Now I don't want to sleep in a bed with you anymore", she said offended but couldn't suppress a grin on her face.
"Oh, so now you are saying that you wanted to sleep in a bed with me… Interesting", he just smirked and lost himself in her hazel eyes.
"You know exactly that's not how I meant that", she put the plate aside and hopped down the kitchen counter, trying to flee the situation.
"Admit it, you're into me", he knew he tested the waters but she wouldn't take him serious anyways.
"Wow, I never met someone that self-absorbed", she rolled her eyes and walked around the kitchen counter to put her plate in the sink.
"And for the record, if anybody here would be falling for anyone, it would be you for me", she continued nonchalantly with no idea how right she was.
"Who's full of herself now?", he said following her to the sink, entirely mesmerized by her.
"Just stating the facts, Specter, you know I am pretty great and pretty irresistible", she stated while putting her hair up in a high ponytail. The crimson sweater moved up her legs as she moved her arms and he couldn't stop staring.
He shouldn't stare but he had no control over that.
Before she could say anything, he quickly turned his face away from her.
She noticed what had happened but it just made her smirk internally that she effected him that much.
"That's what I mean", she voiced rather innocent, not knowing what suddenly came over her that she couldn't stop the flirting.
"You tend to have that effect", he gave back a little surprised but he went with it. Maybe it was due to it being late, he thought. Or the scotch and red wine but he certainly didn't complain.
"Don't I know that, Specter", she implied, leaning back against the kitchen counter. The light of the moon made her fair skin look even more radiant and a few shorter strands of her hair and had fallen out of her ponytail and framed her face perfectly.
He was starstruck by how beautiful she looked.
That has happened many times before but it was just now where it hit him. This incredible women was walking right in front of his eyes every damn day for the last seven years and he was too stupid to see that everything that he has ever been looking was standing right in front of him.
He never really came to terms with his feelings towards her but moments like this made it so clear to him.
Harvey Specter was head over heels in love with Donna Paulsen whether he wanted to admit that or not.
"Why so thoughtful now?", she asked in a rather questioning tone. She saw a soft smile on his lips but he somehow seemed lost in his thoughts.
"Uhm, it's nothing", he tried to draw the attention away from him. She still focused her looks at him and to him it felt like she was reading his mind. He blushed and walked away to the freezer, just to hide his face from her.
"It's never nothing with you, Specter", she tried again, while he was rummaging through the freezer.
It was surprising to her that he was so shy about it.
"Yeah, you know me Paulsen", he faced her again, now with a big box of vanilla gelato in his hand.
A cheshire cat grin was spreading on her face as she was letting out a surprised laugh.
"Don't tell me that you're hiding strawberries in the freezer too?", she asked with a chuckle.
"Right next to the whipped cream", he replied ironically.
"Oh, you remember", she said a little lost in her thoughts, the memory of him standing on her doorstep with whipped cream in hand, flashing through her memory.
"How could I forget?", he gave back a little flirty, looking for spoons.
When he found those he handed one to Donna and placed the big bucket of vanilla ice cream on the kitchen counter.
"Right out of the box? You're really classy here", she smiled at him and accepted the spoon, digging it right in the middle of the gelato.
"Always", he stated, as he did the same.
"Vanilla really is the superior ice cream", she let out, mouth full with ice cream.
"True, but strawberry comes close", he implied while he looked at her with a smile on his face. Seeing her like this, casually in his clothes, eating ice cream out of the box might seem so minor to other people but to him, it was everything.
She smiled a little bit inside, it maybe wasn't only because of her but she liked that he kind of adapted her eating habits.
For the last seven years, he has been taking his coffee only with vanilla because she had introduced him to it, and of course, he had absolutely loved it.
Like he loved everything about her.