"Dinner was great Harvey, thank you." Julianne says, while walking back to her apartment with Harvey.
"You're welcome, I'm glad we finally got a chance to try new Thai place around the corner."
"Me, too." Harvey can tell Juli is distracted by something. "Is everything okay, hon?"
Juli starts to head into her building. Harvey grabs her arm to stop her. "Avoiding the question won't stop me from asking it again."
Julianne isn't sure she wants to tell Harvey about the confrontation she had earlier with Louis. She knows Harvey, he'll go insane.
"Let's go upstairs, okay? I'll tell you what's on my mind when we get up stairs."
Think, quick!
They get inside the apartment. "Please, have a seat on the couch Harvey. I'll pour us some scotch." Walking into the kitchen, Julianne grabs two glasses and pours a small amount of scotch into each. Then it hits her. Sex. He'll forget about the question if we're too busy having sex.
"Here you go, honey." Harvey reaches for his glass.
He takes a sip and then picks up with the questions, "So, are you going to tell me now, what's going on?"
"When did we get to this stage, calling each other 'hon,' or 'honey'? Are we that couple now?" Juli asks, acting as though she never heard Harvey speak.
Harvey smirks, "I don't know when it happened, but it did. Does that bother you?"
Sipping her scotch she smiles, "not one bit. I like it, actually. As long as you don't call me 'babe,' I'll be okay."
"I would never call you babe, but why would you be so against it?"
"Babe was an adorable pig in a movie I watched when I was younger. That's hardly something you call someone you're in a relationship with."
Laughing, Harvey adds, "makes sense. I won't call you babe then."
After throwing back the last of her scotch, Juli grabs Harvey's glass. He had yet to finish but Julianne helped with that, after throwing back his too, she straddles his lap.
"I don't know what's going here, but I like it."
"I'm really happy with you Harvey; it's time that I start showing you." Leaning in she starts to kiss Harvey. "You. Are. In. For. A. Treat." She says, punctuating each word with a kiss.
Harvey just sits back and enjoys the kissing and the hip work Julianne is implementing.
Having enough of just kissing, Harvey gently picks up Juli and stands her up in front of him. He starts to undress her. First by unbuttoning her shirt then slipping off her skirt; it's his turn now. She helps him take his suit jacket off, along with the matching vest, and then his shirt. She starts kissing him while undoing the belt on his pants.
Once he's out of his pants he picks her up and carries her off to the bedroom. They fall into the bed and spend the next few hours in the throes of passion.
Julianne wakes up before her alarm goes off. Quietly crawling out of bed, trying to not wake Harvey, Juli makes her way to the bathroom to take a quick shower.
As soon as she turns the water off in the shower, Julianne can hear her cell phone ringing. Grabbing her bathrobe from behind the bathroom door she hurries out and rushes to answer the phone before it wakes Harvey up.
"Mom, hey, how are you?" Juli asks whispering while walking out of the bedroom.
"Why the whispers?"
"Sorry," she begins in a normal level, "I was in my room, Harvey is still sleeping."
"Oh. Harvey stayed the night?" She could hear the disappointment in her mother's voice.
"Mom, let's not go there. I'm an adult okay."
"Okay, fine. I was just calling to make sure you were still expecting Carrie today."
"Yes, after work I am picking her up at the airport."
"Okay. Make sure her dress is flattering, that it shows-"
"Mom, everything will be fine. We'll send photos, promise. But I must go. I want to get breakfast started."
"Right, must have breakfast ready for prince charming."
"I love you, Mom. I will call you later. Okay?" Juli hangs up the phone, slightly annoyed. She knows her mom didn't mean anything by what she said, but with everything going on with Louis, she's on edge when it comes between her and Harvey.
The coffee has been started and the eggs are just about done. Harvey stumbles into the kitchen with groggy eyes.
"Good morning, sleepy head." Harvey just grins.
"Coffee is just about done, sit down and I'll serve you your breakfast." Harvey does as said; he's too tired to protest her serving him.
"This is the best cup of coffee I have ever had." Harvey declares.
"Hitting the 'start' button is so hard. But thank you," Juli says smiling, giving Harvey a kiss.
Harvey watches as Juli drinks some of her coffee. "Good, now that you've had some coffee this morning, mind telling me what was on your mind last night?"
Just places her coffee cup down harder then she meant to. Harvey just laughs, "You really thought distracting me with sex was going to stop me from remembering the question in the morning?"
"I could only hope." Knowing she can't avoid the conversation for much longer she decides to just tell Harvey what Louis said in the copy room.
"Is that it? That's just Louis being Louis. He's an ass, you know that."
"I know, but it pissed me off. The way he said, 'boyfriend' he degraded what we are. Then him saying, 'I should have seen that coming,' what the hell? Can't I just call in sick today?"
"Hey, you aren't going to run from this. We'll handle this bastard together, okay?"
"Okay. We should really start getting ready though. I don't need Louis getting on me about being late."
"If you're that worried, I'll meet you at the office. Get ready and go. I'll lock your place up. Okay?"
"You're the best."
Juli runs into Mike in the lobby of their firm's building.
"Juls, you are going to wish you took today as a vacation day, too."
"Uh-oh, what's going on?" Juli asks, immediately followed by a big gulp of the coffee she grabbed right outside. This greeting form Mike only proves she'll need all the caffeine she can get to make it through this day.
"Louis held a meeting this morning and noticed you were the only associate missing. He muttered something about you and Harvey while he was walking away."
"What? Why was he holding a meeting? I am not even late! Ugh, GREAT!"
"Hang in there, I'm off to meet with a client for Harvey, we'll talk when I get back, okay?"
"Yeah, okay. Wish me luck."
"Good luck."
Juli walks over to the elevator and makes her way up to her floor. The elevator stops one floor shy of the one she's trying to reach. Louis steps on.
Great.
"Good, you've finally made it to the office."
"Louis, it's eight in the morning."
"Exactly, you should be here at seven-thirty."
Juli stops talking, there is no point; Louis is never satisfied with what she says.
Juli has spent all afternoon running in and out of Louis' office, working on one thing or another. She is going crazy because Louis hasn't quit barking orders at her.
Finally, back at her desk, she takes a moment to just breathe. Last day, then you're on vacation Julianne, you can do this.
"Julianne, what the hell is this?" Louis barks, interrupting the only quiet time Julianne has managed to snag all day, "I asked for you to collate these."
You've got to be fucking kidding me. "They are Louis."
"You thumb through these and tell me if you did or not." Juli grabs the stack of papers. Fuck.
"I have no idea how that happened, I swear, I hit the collate button on the copier."
"Let me guess, your boyfriend came in while you were in there copy room made you lose focus and do your job improperly?" Louis throws the papers on her desk, "you better go fix this and bring these back to me."
"Why are you so bent out of shape over this? I will fix it, but it's not a big deal Louis."
Don't take that tone with me. Your boyfriend may be a senior partner, but you're just a dispensable associate. WATCH IT." Before Juli can react, Louis storms off back to his office.
Juli storms into Louis' office. "What the hell is your problem?"
Louis is angry immediately, "Who do you think—"
"No! Who do you think you are? I bust my ass around here. For what, you to belittle me every chance you get? And now you have to mention my 'boyfriend' every chance you get! What is your deal?"
"It's not me you'll be angry with. You may even thank me some day."
Juli throws her head back and laughs, "Right! Like that'll happen. But I'm curious. Why am I thanking you?"
"Don't you see? You're just some hot piece of ass that roams these halls; of course Harvey is going to dig his claws into you. You are only arm candy to him, he doesn't have girlfriends Julianne, he has hook ups. But you, you think you work your ass off around here? HA! You don't. You just prance around here hoping that someone will notice you. Congratulations Julianne, you did it. You have Harvey and Mike both sniffing around you like you're something special."
Julianne is so angry; she cannot believe what she's hearing.
"So, what, I'm supposed to thank you? For coming to my rescue and telling me that the man I'm seeing is... is… what? Going to just leave me after he's through? I'm supposed to be grateful for that? Fuck. You. You don't know a damn thing about me or him. Our relationship is between him and me. You have no right to make these assumptions about me."
"You're not sleeping your way to the top then? That's the assumption everyone has of you."
Juli is speechless. All she can think to do is leave his office, and to leave it now.
She's out in the hallway and he follows right behind her. "Don't you DARE leave in the middle of this."
She stops walking; turning around, she sees that she and Louis are not alone. Harvey has stepped out of his office, just as everyone else has, to see what the shouting is about.
"Fine, you want to continue this Louis? You want to do this here? Fine! I am a damn good associate and I will not apologize for getting handed cases that mean something. You and the others can think what you want about me. I get by, by doing my best, not trying to kiss ass and outwit others. That may be how you play, but that's my not my game. You want to put me down for my relationship with Harvey, but that's not surprising. You're jealous, because now, Harvey has it all. All that you want, but never will get! Being senior partner, an associate who looks up to you, news flash Louis, everyone hates you. You think it's respect but it's not, they are all just too damn scared to stand up to you." Juli takes a breath. "and lastly, you'll never find a relationship as good as the one Harvey's in now because you're too busy worried about what he's doing to take time for yourself. It must be exhausting being you."
Louis looks around, he can't let some girl talk to him that way, not in front of all these people; but before he can say a word, Jessica walks up to them both.
"My office. Now. "