AN: just to clarify, even though this is a second chapter, it works as a oneshot on its own (the same goes for chapter 1). The idea with this fic is going into moments involving their families as a backdrop for their relationship throughout the years. The first chapter revolved around Harvey's dad, and here we have Donna's mom.

Chapter 2 – The god-awful dinner party
Donna needs Harvey's help hosting a dinner party for her mother. Humor/Romance.

..

It's 08:15. He's late and she's not surprised, but any minute now…

She pulls her box of tissues closer. Takes one out, scrunches it in her hand. Three, two, one…

Footsteps round the corner and she can see him coming by. From the corner of her eyes she spots a light grey suit, blue tie and white shirt. He's in a good mood, clear headed, slept enough... Thank god.

"Morning!" he says distractedly as he passes by her desk, but double takes at the sound of a sniff and halts his steps to notice her reddened eyes and wet lashes, the faintest smudge of mascara, the tinge of red in her nose... "Donna! What- are you okay?"

Harvey enters her cubicle and sits on her desk, leaning close to her. He grabs a tissue from the box and extends it to her. "What happened?"

Donna accepts the tissue and lightly dabs under her eye, but the tears seem to keep rolling down. "No, it's nothing, Harvey. I'm fine."

"You're not fine! What happened?" The concern is clear in his tone.

"It's just…" she sniffs again. "Okay, you're gonna think it's silly, but keep in mind that my dad is devastated! My mom started dating this guy. He's a really rich, really old guy from Oklahoma!" she says as if the State of Oklahoma had personally offended her.

"Okay…?" Harvey scrunches his brows, more confused than ever.

"Not okay!" she admonishes him. "She called to tell me and she started telling me about their sex life, Harvey! And, to make everything a thousand times worse, she's coming to visit and she wants to introduce me to her new boyfriend. She wants me to have them over for dinner! Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? Me introducing a guy to my mom?"

"So… you're upset your mom is dating because… you're not?"

To his credit, he probably really is trying to be understanding, way more than he usually is, she notices in the back of her mind.

"Of course not!" She shoots him an offended look. "But what am I supposed to do with that guy in my house? I love my mom, but I barely know what to talk to her about and now this senior citizen… I can barely cook!" Her voice sounds a little desperate.

"Hm, okay, calm down." Harvey hesitantly tries to appease her. "I can… What can I do to help?"

He is just so easy at times…

"Oh…" she seems to be taking a second to think about his offer. "I don't know… I mean, I guess it would be really great to have a buffer there, you know? Someone to distract from the awkwardness of the situation and just be charming and make small talk…"

"Donna...!" An audible groan escapes his lips, but she's looking at him from below her wet eyelashes and of course this battle was won before it even began. "Okay... I'll do it."

"Really?" Donna says excitedly. "She's coming this Saturday and you don't have anything on your schedule. I'll owe you big time!"

"Yeah, okay, I can do it- wait," he stops mid sentence, his low and consoling tone becoming louder as he scrunches his whole face. "You already checked my schedule?"

"Yep!" Donna's tone is chirpy and she smiles sweetly. Too sweetly.

"Oh my god!" He jumps off of her desk and gapes at her, watching her sway slowly to face him. Donna just relaxes back into her chair and keeps smiling as he wonders where the hell her tears disappeared to. "You… YOU SET ME UP!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Donna states, a look of casual innocence as she raises her eyebrows.

"You pulled the fake crying shit on me! Again!"

That's when she smirks.

"I plead the fifth."

"Donna!" He groans in a mix of utter annoyance and hopeless pleading, but she cuts him off before he can make his case.

"So we're set. Saturday night at my place. Your schedule is clear and I'll be waiting for you at 6:30, because I need you there before my mom shows up."

"I hate you."

"No, you don't." She raises her eyebrows and conjures a cup of coffee out of nowhere to hand him as a peace offering, which he accepts, but not without making a face.

Harvey takes a deep breath in defeat and a sip of his coffee. "You could bring down entire nations, you know that?"

"Nobody told you to hire an actress." She shrugs.

"YOU told me to hire an actress!"

"Okay, bye now. Go do some work before things end up pilling up for Saturday." She waves him out of her cubicle.

"Oh, don't tempt me!" Harvey replies from behind his shoulder, but he's already entering his office.

..

She can cook. She's been feeding herself for years and she's still alive, well and with a smoking hot body, thank you very much. But she usually just scrambles something really quick, it's not like she has the time or the desire to spend her life behind a stove. And she practically lives at the office. And she's been ordering out a lot… Okay, maybe cooking isn't her number one skill.

Donna has a cookbook and an organized assortment of ingredients over her kitchen counter and a couple of pots heating at the stove when she hears a knock on the door and freezes. It's too soon. Dinner's not ready, she's not ready, Harvey's not there yet… shit.

She's barefoot, wearing jeans and a t-shirt and her hair is up and probably looking like a mess her mother will no doubt point out in front of Oklahoma Bob. She should've told Harvey to come earlier. She-

"Hey, it's too late to play hard to get. Can you open the door?"

She sighs in relief when she hears Harvey's voice and rushes to the door.

"You're early."

"Are you seriously complaining?"

"I am in no way complaining. I just had three successive heart attacks thinking it was my mom." She moves out of the way to let him in and he hands her a bottle of wine. "You didn't have to."

"Why? Are you planning on going through tonight sober?"

"Oh, no. Definitely not. It's just I'm stocked up on wine already." She raises both her eyebrows for a dramatic flare.

Harvey chuckles and shrugs off his jacket as he follows her into the kitchen.

Donna catches herself staring at him as he stops to place his folded jacket on the back of an armchair. For a moment, she doesn't know what to say, nor why she feels so nervous. How it's even possible to feel awkward around Harvey when they put in fifteen hour days twelve feet from each other is a mystery to her. But only for a second, and then it hits her.

It's only the second time he's ever set foot in her apartment. The first since… the other time.

She had been so busy inside her head, freaking out about having dinner with her mom and her boyfriend, she somehow forgot to consider the implications of having Harvey in her apartment.

Add to that how casual they both look. Him, with his black button up and dark jeans, though his hair is as gelled up as always, and looking so much taller than her, with her fitted t-shirt, messy hair and no shoes. That's new for them. They've only ever seen each other in two styles of outfits before, those being: work attire and naked. She probably can't even count her lilac negligee, considering Harvey only saw her in that for about three minutes before he ripped it off her body... But this line of thought isn't helping.

She takes a deep breath and pours him a glass of wine so he can join her half way through the bottle.

"So, what are we eating?" he inquires after a gulp of his wine, looking over her cookbook.

"Shrimp cocktail, this fish stuffed with herbs and some veggies." She points at the pictures on the book as she speaks, standing close beside him.

"Looks good." He nods at the pictures, but there's just something too humorous about his face.

She places a hand on her hip and calls him out. "What is it?"

Harvey smirks at her from behind the rim of his glass, before asking in a teasing tone. "You can cook, right?"

"Of course I can cook!"

He raises an eyebrow, challenging her. "Just checking."

"You didn't come early just to mock my cooking, did you?"

"To make sure I don't get poisoned, you mean?"

She tilts her head to the side and gives him a 'cut the bullshit' look to inform him he's being ridiculous.

"To be honest, I bet myself you'd order out and I'm just here to make sure it won't be from that shitty Thai place you ordered from last week."

"You talk a big talk for someone whose kitchen skills begin and end with scrambled eggs."

"I know how to make coffee."

"That's not cooking."

"You said 'kitchen skills', not cooking," he replies, looking too smug for someone who's just admitted can't cook shit.

She rolls her eyes at his incorrigible ways. "Okay, counselor. Less talking, more chopping before my mom arrives."

"You're gonna make me work?" He gapes at her, but she's pretty sure he doesn't mean it.

"Oh, come on! You had to know this would happen when you decided to show up early."

"My schedule was just too clear." He shrugs. "You really made sure I had nothing else to do but come here tonight, didn't you?"

Donna chuckles because it's true.

"Okay, I'm gonna finish dealing with the fish. Can you chop these tomatoes? Here."

She throws him a tomato and he catches it in the air, giving it a squeeze and then they start working together, side by side on the counter. He's chopping while she makes an incision on the fish and stuffs it with herbs, but Donna's focus is clearly more on what Harvey's doing rather than on her own task, making sure he doesn't slaughter their future meal.

"You think I'm gonna chop off my finger or something?" Harvey side glances her, amused.

"If I have to take you to the emergency room I can easily cancel dinner."

"What's the big deal anyway? Why are you so worked up about this?"

Donna sighs. "I- I don't know, I'm just a little nervous. I haven't seen my mom in so long because of work... and she's obviously gonna say something about that, by the way." She raises an eyebrow in Harvey's direction.

"About what?"

"About working such long hours. That's apparently not the right way to live my life." She rolls her eyes.

"I thought you got along with your mom."

"I do, I really do. But we're just… different people. And I love her, but she's really not the most understanding person when things don't meet her expectations. Hence the divorce."

"And you are one of the things that didn't meet her expectations?"

She can sense the slight hint of anger in his tone and in the way his jaw clenches.

"Some aspects of me, yes. And she's always been a little bit resentful that I didn't cut ties with my dad when she did. She thinks I picked his side in the divorce and I didn't."

Harvey glances at her, dipping his chin down and twisting his mouth to the side, an expression she can read way too easily.

"I didn't! I just don't blame him for everything that happened," she defends.

He doesn't say a thing. Just reaches for the bottle of wine and refills their glasses.

He knows her story. She had told him years ago, even before he told her about his. How her father used to be a big name in development and they lived in a huge house in Connecticut. How she used to take piano lessons and theater lessons and she was going to be an actress. Until her dad made a bad deal. He lost all their family money and their house, and they moved to a small apartment in New York. Donna's always had the feeling that Harvey resented her father for that at least a little bit, just like her mother did.

"You and my mom are going to get along just fine," she frowns.

Harvey smirks, not putting any effort into trying to convince her he has fond feelings towards her dad. "I don't know, Don. She might wanna come after me for making you work so late."

"Can't blame her," Donna smirks back.

They're interrupted by the phone ringing somewhere further down the corridor.

"Can you just tie the fish closed and dump it in that pan, please?" She points at some kind of stew boiling in the stove. "I'll finish the vegetables later, this needs to cook now. The string's here." She opens a drawer for him and rushes to answer the phone.

When she comes back into the kitchen she's changed for dinner and is now wearing a casual dress, put some shoes on and let her hair down. Harvey's leaning on the counter, drinking his wine and going through his phone.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Fish is cooking. Work is weirdly slow." He shoves his phone back into his pocket.

"Hm, that's weird." She smiles coyly, not even trying to hide the fact that she's responsible for said slowness.

"What you're capable of scares me sometimes, you know?"

There's not much else to do and Donna finishes cooking by herself. After a few minutes, all that's left to do is check on the fish.

"Harvey!" She calls in a weirdly high pitch. "Can you come here for a second?"

Harvey had been sitting in the living room and when he gets back into the kitchen she's statue like, staring at the pan in front of her with wide eyes, the arm holding the lid frozen mid-air.

"What happened?" He rushes over, but when he stands behind her, looking over her shoulder at the pan, what happened becomes abundantly clear.

"Why is my fish blue?" She's speaking in a paused manner that's positively scary.

"Oh, shit!" Harvey runs his fingers through his hair. "It must've been the string…"

"You tied the fish with a blue string?!" She turns around to face him, almost bumping her chest against his because he had been standing so close. She's fuming.

Harvey takes a safety step back. "You told me to! It was in the drawer!"

"You know what else was in the freaking drawer, Harvey? A regular, normal, WHITE, cooking string!" She lunges to open the same drawer again and points at the little roll just sitting there.

Harvey's face scrunches up in what she thinks is guilt, but turns out it was just him trying to contain himself because, surely enough, he's bursting out in laughter only a second later.

And he just… wouldn't. stop. laughing.

"What the hell, Harvey?!" Donna manages to say, involuntarily being carried away by him, which makes it very hard to be mad.

Harvey's bending over, she's drying tears of laughter from the corner of her eyes. That's when the doorbell rings.

"Shit!" Donna's laughter immediately ceases and she collects herself, straightening her posture as if she was about to come up on stage and put on a show. "Okay, go to the living room." She orders Harvey, before she moves to open the door.

Standing in front of the closed door, she takes a deep breath and plasters a smile on her face before turning the lock.

"Mom!"

"Darling! It's so good to see you." The woman on the other side of the door smiles brightly and hugs her before introducing the man by her side. "Here, I'd like you to meet Bob."

Bob is shorter than Donna - and her mother, for that matter -, he sports silver-grey hair combed back to perfection and a thick white beard. He wears a grey blazer over his white shirt, jeans and… are those cowboy boots?

"I've heard so much about you, Bob." Donna shakes the man hands, thinking that, frankly, she would like to have heard a bit less.

"So have I," comes Bob's hoarse voice. "The only thing your mother didn't tell me is that you two look like sisters!"

"Oh, Bob!" Her mom gives the man a little slap on the shoulder and giggles.

It's official. Her mother is absolutely infatuated.

"Come in, you too." Donna guides them past the threshold and down the corridor to the living room where her mother abruptly halts at the sight of Harvey standing there, waiting for the guests.

"Mom, this is Harvey. Harvey, this is my mom, Tania."

Tania glances back at her daughter a little wide-eyed, a strange contentment in her features Donna can't quite place.

"Harvey! It's so nice to finally meet you!"

Harvey beams at her and Donna can see he's putting all his charms to their advantage as he greets her mother. Bless his soul.

Tania doesn't only shake Harvey's hand. She gives him a brief hug just like she did with her daughter, before introducing her boyfriend and immediately striking small talk about how he looks even more handsome than she imagined and how she's glad she finally gets to thank him in person for letting her stay in his condo last year. She's being so agreeable, so pleasant and so nice, Donna just doesn't know what to think.

Since she divorced her father, Donna's mother had been complaining about her lifestyle more and more. And that, of course, included Harvey. Tania seemed to like him in the beginning of their professional relationship, but as the years had gone by, she had started to complain about Harvey everytime she got a chance. It was clear she felt like the man was monopolizing and holding down her daughter's life, like he was taking advantage of her in some way. And that only caused Donna to share less of her life with her mother. But apparently she started liking the man again all of the sudden?

Even Bob was surprisingly pleasant, with his loud laughter and strong accent, he struck a business conversation with Harvey before Donna had even poured them some wine.

Her mom caught her up on life in the South over a glass of wine and one or two jabs about her ex-husband, to which Donna tried really hard not to roll her eyes until she decided she should probably start the dinner part of the evening and move things along.

This was going weirdly well. What was she even freaking out about?

"Do you need help?" Harvey asks with his ass already halfway off the couch and she knows what he's actually asking is for the love of god, will you please let me go with you?

"I do, thank you." She decides to give him this one on the account of doing her the huge favor of coming tonight.

"Really? That bad?" she murmurs when they're alone in the kitchen.

Harvey leans over her shorter form, whispering as low as he can. "The guy just won't stop talking! I think he's trying to poach me to the cattle business and, believe me, I would've bought an entire herd already if it would shut him up."

Donna chuckles. "Sorry, my mom's being weirdly nice. It distracted me from rushing dinner."

"By the way, your mom likes me, huh?" He raises his eyebrows looking way too full of himself for her liking.

She rolls her eyes. "Like I said, she's acting weird. Let's move this along."

They both serve the shrimp cocktail in the living room and open another bottle of wine. The food is edible, at most. She has to admit to herself it's not her best work. But only to herself.

They're all chatting animatedly when her mother's next comment crashes down between them.

"I have to say," Tania speaks with a glint in her eyes and a teasing smile. "I'm so happy the two of you have finally decided to commit!"

Donna feels something inside her drop to her feet while her eyes catch Harvey's. She finds her voice at the back of her throat to stutter a low questioning. "W-what?"

"That situation between you two was so silly!" Tania distractedly sips her wine, not noticing the tension on her daughter's face. "You know you weren't convincing me with that line about Harvey being just your boss, right? I mean-"

"Mom!" Donna cuts her off in a high cry, briefly glancing at Harvey's dumbfounded expression, all wide-eyed and trying to swallow his mouthful of shrimp. "Harvey is just my boss," she says between gritted teeth.

"Oh, sweetheart..." her mom chuckles light heartedly for a second until she has the sense of feeling the room and, between Donna's livid expression and Harvey choking on his food, she gathers her daughter really is serious. One would think the woman would be embarrassed after such a faux pas, but not Tania. She's infuriated. "Oh no! Not this bullshit again!" she exclaims in unguarded annoyance.

Donna blinks several times as she stares at her mother unbelievingly. "You… Did you actually think we were… together? This whole time?"

"Of course I did, Donna! I come to dinner at my daughter's house to introduce her to the man of my life and she has a guy over, I'm surely going to assume they're in a relationship!"

She finally snaps out of the shock, making room for anger and exasperation. "Well, maybe you shouldn't be so quick to assume things!"

"Oh, that certainly is a shame," comes Bob's deep voice from his corner of the couch, attracting everyone's attention and suddenly stopping the argument that was about the erupt between mother and daughter. "You two make such a handsome duo. Imagine the offspring you two could provide! But I guess not... I just can't understand why. I think youth these days are just too complicated!"

"Oh, what can I say, Bob?" Donna mock-sighs. "I can be picky. I choose my men the way you choose your cattle - strong, with great hair... and delicious!"

Harvey immediately spurts out such an uncontrollable laughing fit, the shrimp he's been keeping his mouth busy with to avoid talking flies across the room and lands silently in the back of Tania's hair, who's looking at Donna with her jaw dropped and a fire of outrage in her eyes at her daughter's indiscretion.

To make matters worse, the shrimp just got stuck in there like a tick. Harvey has tears in his eyes and he feels like he's going to choke between his desperate, and futile, attempt to stop laughing and the terror about the very likely odds that Tania would notice the shellfish adonning her well groomed hairdo at any second.

He's trying to attract her attention, but Donna's very stubbornly avoiding his eyes while simultaneously shooting daggers at her mother.

"This shrimp is so great, Donna!" Harvey says loudly, still a little choked up and using the fakest cheerful tone anyone in the room has ever heard, specially because it would be safe to say the only thing the four people there probably could agree on at that moment is that the shrimp's not great.

"Hm, thanks," Donna replies, unfazed by the fake compliment, but that accomplishes Harvey's goal - she's looking at him.

"Shrimp. Hair." He mouths in her direction while her mom starts talking to Bob.

Donna scrunches her nose in confusion. "What?"

"There's a shrimp… in your mother's hair."

He's pretty sure at this point what they're doing is more mind reading than reading lips, but his emphatic glance towards her mother does the trick.

Donna follows his glance and immediately squeals when she sees the problem, the sound attracting her mother's attention back to her. She's biting her lips so hard to stop from bursting out in laughter that her face is getting red.

"What is it?" her mother inquiries sternly.

"I'm going to serve dinner!" Donna replies all too innocently, recovering quickly. She stands beside her mother and mentions sweetly "I'm really glad you're here, Mom."

And just when Harvey's furrowing his brows in confusion at her weirdly timed kindness, he spots her tenderly stroking her mother's hair before she retreats to the kitchen, leaving Tania a little more soft and a little less shrimpy. The woman is a goddamn genius.

Harvey beams at her from his place and she raises the flying shrimp in victory behind Tania's back.

..

"Any particular reason why this fish's blue, sweetheart?" Tania asks ironically when Donna places the dish at the center of the dinner table.

"If I told you it's the Pacific trout, would you believe me? It's very rare, very expensive."

"No, I would not."

Donna shrugs, taking a seat beside her mother. "Then you can either blame Harvey or just trust it tastes good and eat it."

"So Harvey's responsible for the food you serve but, still, you're not in a relationship."

"Oh my god…" Donna mutters tiredly, dropping her head in defeat.

They soon confirm that the fish is, in fact, surprisingly good.

Between the good-looking, but tasteless shrimp and the scary-looking, but tasty fish, Donna desperately needs desert to go well. But that's okay, because she's cooked those pears before and they're delicious, juicy and warm, with a tinge of wine and it goes perfectly with the… shit. She forgot she was supposed to serve the desert with whipped cream.

She absolutely cannot and will not serve whipped cream to Harvey. There's no way. She's having a mini freak out in the kitchen, not knowing what to do about the damn desert. There's ice cream in the fridge, but it's Chunky Monkey, she can't serve that…

Accepting defeat, she serves her guests just the pears immersed in the sweet sauce they're cooked in and hopes it's good enough. But of course fate - and her mother - wouldn't let her get away so easily.

"I don't care much for fruit," Bob mentions licking his spoon, "but this is one damn good pear."

"Thanks, Bob."

"It's good, but you should serve it with some vanilla ice cream next time, honey," her mother tells her, "or better yet, whipped cream."

Donna's eyes snap in Harvey's direction, finding him staring back at her. She doesn't mean to, but it's as if their sights magnetically attract each other at the mention of the word. It's a secret joke, a secret ritual and a very, very dangerous subject that had been forbidden between them a long time ago and never mentioned again.

"You wouldn't happen to have some whipped cream in your fridge, would you?" Tania asks, not noticing the tension going around the dinner table. "It would go great."

"No, Mom. I'm all out of whipped cream," Donna says, eyes still locked on Harvey's, and she can't help the way the corners of her mouth curl up the slightest and, without intending to, she's smirking at him. Harvey shakes his head slowly as he bites the corner of his lower lip and she's sure there's also a restrained smirk in there. Feeling something way too hot spread from her belly up to her neck and down between her legs, she avoids his gaze then, turning her head down in a light chuckle, an uncharacteristic shyness to her.

..

Bob isn't that bad after all. A bit of a loser, but also kind of sweet and her mother seems happy with him so that's what matters. After dinner, they move the conversation back to the couch, but don't extend their visit for much longer, and soon her mother's thanking her for the night and telling Bob it's time for them to go.

"Can we give you a ride in our cab, Harvey?" Bob offers as the group moves to the door.

"Hm… no, that's not necessary. Thank you," Harvey replies awkwardly and Tania eyes him suspiciously.

"Are you coming down with us, at least?" She motions to the stairs.

Harvey declines, trying to shrug and appear casual. "I'll stay and help Donna clean up."

Donna shoots him a look, eyebrows almost disappearing under her bangs in mock surprise, when in reality she's about to laugh at his excuse to avoid being alone with the couple.

"Aren't you a gentleman!" Tania comments in unmistakable sharp irony and Donna can swear Harvey almost blushes, but she doesn't push any further and turns to her daughter instead. "Well, then… it was really nice to see you, honey. You gotta remember you have a mother every once in a while."

"Like I could forget! I miss you, Mom." Donna smiles and hugs her mother. They embrace tenderly for a moment before the four of them share their goodbyes and Donna waits until her mother reaches the staircase to shut the apartment door.

She leans tiredly against the door, bowing her head back, closing her eyes and drawing in a deep breath as Harvey watches her unwind.

"I can't tell if me being here made more damage or helped." He smirks at her when she opens her eyes.

"Yeah, me neither…"

"That was one god-awful dinner party." He chuckles, making Donna laugh.

"Hey, what's with the shrimp in my mother's hair?!" she shoots in his direction, suddenly remembering she still needs further explanation on whatever the hell happened there, but Harvey starts laughing again and she can't help but follow along. "Did you really… just… spit that piece of shrimp on her?" she asks, trying to talk in the midst of laughter.

"It was your fault!" Harvey defends himself. "You and your delicious cattle-men!"

Donna's laughing so much her ribs hurt.

"Why did it get stuck in there though?" he asks. "I don't understand!"

"Hairspray!"

When their laughter slowly subsides, they find themselves smiling at each other in silence. Just standing by the door, slightly high on wine and laughter and how inebriating the other's company is.

"Well, even if it backfired a bit, I'm glad you were here tonight. Thank you."

Harvey just shrugs, placing both hands in his pockets. "No problem."

"Okay, I'll set you free now," she mentions lightly, reaching to open the door again, but he stops her.

"I said I'd help you clean up."

She rolls her eyes, good-humored. "I know for a fact you only said that to escape Bob."

"And your mother, yes." He nods and smiles in confirmation. "But I'm a man of my word."

"You don't have to…"

"Will you just let me have some more wine and dry some dishes?"

He wants to stay, she realizes. So she chuckles and they go back to the kitchen to clean up.

It's in that moment, when she's handing him a plate and watching him place his half-empty glass of wine on the counter to dry it with a dishcloth, that it hits her for the first time. Something pulls inside her chest and for a second it feels warm and sweet, until it gets so hot she feels it's burning her from inside. The realization of how good, and comfortable, and happy and… right this feels.

Being there with Harvey, at the end of the night, having wine and cleaning up after dinner, talking and laughing together... It all feels so familiar, like that's the way life's supposed to be.

But it's everything they're not. All they don't have and could never have. At that moment, she doesn't quite understand why.

"What?"

Harvey's low tone pulls her out of her reverie and she realizes she had drifted away to that little place she keeps locked inside and never allows herself in. She takes a sip of her wine to try and swallow down the sudden lump in her throat.

"Never thought I'd see you doing dishes." She smirks.

"Technically you're the one doing them."

"Wanna trade places?"

"No way."

"Next time then," she jokes, hoping he won't notice the bittersweetness of her tone, because there may very well never be a next time.

"Next time." Harvey grins and pours her some more wine, so she just smiles, breathes in, puts it out of her mind and never mentions it again - exactly like she's used to.

..

AN: I hope this makes justice to the iconic god-awful dinner party and that you had some fun reading it! (It was so much fun for me to write it!) I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Shout out to Bridget Jones' Diary for the idea of the blue-string food.
Much love to Blue for betaing and general wonderfulness.