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Despite the reassurances he gave to Mike, Harvey knew that something smelled about Jessica’s dinner invitation, which is why he was waiting for her in her office. He knew they covered their tracks well in fabricating Mike’s Harvard background, so he’s not actually worried about her being aware of the fact ahead of the dinner, but there’s always the chance that Mike could accidentally give something away based on where the conversation heads. Or even worse, she could start prying into Harvey’s personal life. Thanks to Donna knowing pretty much everything, he’s aware that Louis is trying to prove that he’s fucking one of the associates, and if he passed those suspicions on to Jessica without proof… and while Louis technically isn’t wrong, what Harvey and Mike have is more than just fucking, but it could still cost one or both of them their jobs as an inappropriate workplace relationship given that Mike is Harvey’s subordinate. It wouldn’t matter that Mike was the one that seduced Harvey or that they leave work at work, Jessica would be furious at the optics should it become common knowledge. And since Harvey has no secrets from Donna - something of which Jessica is very much aware - she could easily end up collateral damage, which Harvey would never forgive himself for.
When Jessica says that she received a tip that Mike had never attended law school, Harvey’s blood runs cold because he knows exactly where it came from. He mentally breathes a sigh of relief when Mike’s cover checked out, but when Jessica stops him from leaving with a “one other thing” he knows the other shoe is about to drop. Given that Jessica is giving him the benefit of the doubt, he can’t let anything show on his face, instead being forced to wait until he’s outside the building to let out the expletives he’s been thinking over the fact that it didn’t occur to him that anyone would ever try to verify Mike’s undergraduate records. He’s not sure how he’s going to handle this, but the one thing he does know is that he’s not going to fire his boyfriend.
His heart sinks when he gets home to find lights on, because that mean’s that Mike is there. Harvey had hoped to keep this revelation from Mike until the morning, when he would hopefully have some sort of plan, but Mike is almost as good at reading him as Donna, so there is no way to lie him and buy time. Sure enough, Mike’s expression falls as soon as he sees Harvey.
“What did I say wrong?” Mike asks nervously. “I thought I talked around all the Harvard questions without giving anything a way.”
“It was a fucking set-up,” Harvey admits. “She received a tip that you didn’t go to law school, which we both know came from your asshole best friend. And because she’s Jessica, she didn’t stop after verifying with Harvard. She went looking for your undergraduate records.”
“Fuck,” Mike responds. “Why take me out to dinner, then? Or rather invite me to dinner and then stick me with the bill.”
“Because she wants to make me fire you,” Harvey admits. “And she wants to make the process as painful as possible.”
“Do you think she knows about this?” Mike asks quietly, gesturing between the two of them.
“She would have said and we’d both be fired,” Harvey responds. “I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want you to be nervous about dinner, but I was actually more worried that she discovered us, because I know Louis has been sniffing around trying to prove I’m sleeping with an associate.”
“He’s what!” Mike exclaims. “You didn’t think I needed to know that?”
“Louis has no idea that I’m gay, so he was looking in the complete opposite direction,” Harvey says. “But when Jessica didn’t tell me that she invited you to dinner, I was worried that Louis said something to her to stick it to me.”
“And Jessica knows you like men,” Mike says, not needing to ask to know the answer.
“I had a boyfriend when she decided to pay for my law degree,” Harvey admits. “She’s the one that informed me that my sexuality would be a liability if certain partners found out.”
“Shit,” Mike mutters. “Would she have…”
“Ratted me out to them?” Harvey asks. “Absolutely fucking not. It was a warning to be discrete. Which I have been. Donna’s the only other one that knows.”
“Because you told her or because she just knows everything?” Mike asks.
“She asked, I confirmed,” Harvey responds. “I haven’t been able to hide anything from her in a long time.”
“Jessica’s not going to come after her is she?” Mike asks. “Because of me?”
Harvey shakes his head. “Jessica is giving me the benefit of the doubt that I didn’t already know about your educational deficiencies, so if I play nice, the only one without a job is you.”
“What happens if you don’t fire me?” Mike asks.
“She said if I don’t, she will,” Harvey admits. “I just have to figure out how to buy us some time.”
“I beg your pardon?” Mike asks.
“Jessica wants me to fire you because it means it will be done quietly without many questions,” Harvey responds. “And since I’m not going to do that, I need to make sure that if she fires you, the wrong people will start asking the wrong questions.”
“Because if the truth comes out, every case I’ve worked on is a potential lawsuit against the firm,” Mike realizes. “And to make Jessica nervous, it would need to be a partner that would ask questions.”
“And fucking Louis is the only one that would be obnoxious enough about digging for answers,” Harvey says with a sigh. “I just need to figure out how to convince him to make your life a living hell and also brag to Jessica about it.“
“I have faith in you,” Mike says, pulling Harvey into a kiss. “Let’s go to bed and try to salvage what’s left of the night.”
Later, as Mike is sleeping beside him, Harvey lays there staring at the ceiling, unable to turn his brain off. While using Louis will buy him some time, Harvey still knows that he has an uphill battle to save Mike’s job and needs to have a backup plan in case it all blows up in their faces.