Chapter 7 - You Don't Look Too Bad Yourself

For the second time that day, Donna had found herself on the phone to Rachel again. However this time, Miss Zane had called her.

'I'm so exhausted Rach, I think the jet lag has kicked in. But -I - I sooooo want to see you too, I suppose one drink won't hurt. I hope you won't judge me if I snore in my margarita!' she laughed.

'Not at all Harriet Specter, snooze away!' Rachel laughed, but then realised she hadn't said that in such a long time - so much had happened since. She no longer thought Harriet Specter existed. She thought she sensed an awkward silence; something that never used to happen between these two.

'Now, that's a name I haven't used in a while. Not sure I still can, considering everything.' Rachel sensed the change in Donna's jovial tone. 'I messaged him today.'

'What? Harvey?' Rachel already knew, as Mike had just told her on the phone. She hated lying to her friend, but if it was to try and fix a four year long silence between two of her closest friends, then so be it. She played along willingly, not letting on to her imminent intervention. 'What did he say?'

'To be honest, I wasn't even expecting him to accept my friend request, let alone message me back!' Donna answered, 'He seemed okay at first, you know, laying on the Specter banter. Then, without thinking, I stupidly, after too much wine, happened to mention that I missed him...' she went silent.

'Okaaaay,' Rachel elongated her response, 'So, what did he say to that?'

'Nothing! That's the problem. He shut down and went offline and I haven't heard from him since. I should have known, he'd never change. I really thought after all this time, we would at least have had a go at forgetting what happened and be friends again.' Rachel could hear the hurt searing through Donna's voice as she spoke. She smiled to herself knowing what Mike had already told her ten minutes ago, whilst he was still at Harvey's apartment.

'Come on, we need to drink! And you never know, your evening could perk the hell up!'

'It goddamn better!'

XXXXXXXXXX

Rachel had chosen the Pegu Club, their favourite exclusive cocktail bar just off Washington Square Park on West Houston and 47th.

She had managed to grab a table and order their drinks before Donna arrived, also making a mental note of getting a table large enough for four of them...

Donna's silk, strapless dress caught Rachel's eye straight away as the red head cut a line of admirers through the Friday night crowd, mostly filled with after work Wall Street types, suits and singles. She could feel eyes on her; damn she knew she looked good and she couldn't help but turn the charm on in her walk over towards Rachel.

'Damn, you look hot!' Rachel raised her eyebrows up at her friend as she admired the cream, strapless wonder. 'I haven't seen you in that long I forgot how stunning you are,' Rachel laughed as she got up out of her seat to hug her friend. So tightly, that Donna had to catch her breath.

'Hey you! You look amazing! So being a fiancé looks good on you...' Donna held Rachel's hands out and leant back to admire her friend then grabbed her left hand up to view her engagement ring.

'I'm so sorry I didn't come home sooner,' Donna's face fell slightly when she had realised how much she had missed out on.

'But hey, when you have your wedding, at least the Maid of Honour is in the same country now!'

'How did you...?' Rachel smiled, knowing Donna had already accepted her invitation to be Maid of Honour before she'd even got chance in asking. Some things never change, Rachel thought.

After half an hour of catching up and Donna filling Rachel in on the last few months since she'd last seen her best friend, they'd made their way through their first margaritas.

'Donna, I need to tell you something,' Rachel had fought the urge to tell her up until now, 'I kinda knew about Harvey and the whole friend request thing...'

Donna laughed, 'I sort of figured that out, come on, I know Harvey would tell Mike. It's not rocket science.'

Rachel exhaled, 'But I may have sort of told Mike where we were heading tonight...' Her eyes diverted to behind Donna.

'Oh I wouldn't worry about that,' Donna said taking a sip of her second Margarita, 'It's not like Harvey is just going to show up out of the blue and...'

Shit. Shit. Shit.

She was positive her heart seriously just missed a beat, quickly placing her hand across her chest just to make sure it was still beating. Pounding more like. Her eye-line moved up his body and met those familiar deep, brown eyes.

She swallowed and placed her drink back onto the table, taking a second or two to regulate her breathing before looking back up.

His grin, that Goddamn grin, she had missed so much, was spread across his face, accenting his lines around his eyes. In that moment, she noticed every change in his face since four years ago. He looked older, the creases around his smile were deeper; she was still studying his face and had forgotten to speak.

'Hey,' he echoed the same words they had not long ago typed to each other.

'Hey,' she managed to utter back as she cast her eyes to Mike, who was standing next to him.

Her heart was still leaping around her chest, she couldn't work out if it was nerves or the fact that he still looked damn good. Dressed in a black shirt, sleeves rolled up and dark jeans, he looked seriously good, she was praying the blush that crept across her cheeks wasn't showing.

'I thought we could finish the conversation we'd started earlier, but as you remember I'm not one for messaging...'

She laughed, 'You did disappear quite abruptly, I thought you'd thrown the phone at Louis or something.'

'No, that was last week,' his eyes lit up as he made her laugh.

'I can vouch for his shit battery life!' Mike interrupted as he returned from the bar with bottles of beer for himself and Harvey and more margaritas. It was far from a Macallan evening yet.

'You look...' he tried to find an appropriate adjective for someone whom he hadn't seen for a long while, yet had thought about on a daily basis, 'Great!' Ok, maybe that was a bit lame Specter, he thought.

She let out a chuckle, knowing what he was thinking, 'You don't look too bad yourself.'

'May I?' He took the seat next to her and sat down, placing his beer down next to her glass.

'Well then, it's great to see you,' her smile radiated across her face, she genuinely was happy to see him, the feeling of everything that had happened those few years ago evaporated within seconds. It's amazing what time can do, she thought.

'You too,' he reciprocated her smile and swigged his beer - trying so hard not to look too much at her. Damn, she looked good he thought.