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It certainly wasn’t missed by Louis, how Harvey Specter paid just a little too much attention to one Mike Ross.
Harvey certainly wasn’t the only partner to take a special interest in one of the new junior associates, but none of them had paid attention to them like Harvey did with Mike Ross.
The man checked in on what he was doing at least two to three times a day, constantly called on Mike for meetings up in his office, he even went to Mike’s house from time to time when they weren’t at work.
It almost made Louis think that - no, that was insane.
Harvey had various ex-girlfriends, and he had that on again, off again, thing with what was her name - Scottie.
In all of their years of knowing each other, the man had never mentioned being interested in men. At least not that way.
But watching how the two men interacted.
It was plainly obvious that that was the only reasonable explanation.
Harvey Spector was dating, or at least trying to get with, Mike Ross.
How else could Louis explain the amount of private and closed door conversation the two had. Or the way that Harvey would lean over Mike’s shoulder when Mike needed to show him something on his computer. Or how Harvey paid so much attention to Mike’s personal life - telling Mike he couldn’t talk to one of his friends outside of work. What kind of boss does that?
And don’t even get Louis started on how Harvey had stormed into Louis’s office that one day, telling him in explicit terms that Mike Ross was ‘off limits’ and that Louis would have to run anything to do with him through Harvey first.
There was definitely something going on between the two of them. And Louis was going to figure out what it was if his life depended on it.
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“Donna, Donna,” Louis said as he nearly ran up to her desk one morning, slightly out of breath.
“Yes?” Donna asked. It wasn’t everyday that Louis came up to her like this, but then again… it wasn’t unheard of.
Donna was never someone to pass on office gossip, especially when it was coming from one Louis Litt.
His gossip was always, surprisingly true or completely nonsensical, with no in between. And it was impossible to tell which it would be without hearing the man out.
When Louis caught his breath, he leant in towards her and spoke just quietly enough so that only she would be able to hear him. “I need you to be honest with me here, Harvey and Mike Ross,” he began, and Donna’s eyes widened and she became ever more present when she heard him say those two names. “Are they… in some sort of a relationship?”
“What?” she asked, completely caught off guard.
Louis quickly looked to his right, and he saw both Harvey and Mike in the office talking to each other, though neither had noticed him so far.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed their interactions,” he said. “You sit right next to him. You can overhear almost every conversation had in his office. I’m sure you’ve heard something between them.”
Oh, Donna thought. Louis wasn’t implying what she thought he was, was he?
Donna merely let out a soft laugh. “I can assure you that’s not the case,” she told Louis.
Louis narrowed his eyes as he leant forward to whisper to her. “Are you sure about that?” he asked as he quickly glanced at Harvey’s office with his eyes.
Donna slowly turned her gaze to the office. Inside, Harvey and Mike were standing in a very… suggestive position.
“Just think about it, Donna,” Louis continued. “Last week I overheard them talking about finding an apartment for his grandmother. Have you ever talked to Harvey or any boss about your grandmother before? And last month I heard Harvey get annoyed with the suits Mike was wearing, saying they weren’t fancy enough or whatever. He just handed Mike his credit card and told him to go buy one for himself. Have you ever seen a partner do that for a junior associate, one who hasn’t even been here for three months?”
And well, when Louis put it that way…
Donna thought over every interaction she had seen between Mike and Harvey since Mike had mistakenly run into the interview room.
At first, most of their interactions could be explained by two things: Harvey did choose Mike to be his protege and apprentice, and then they had to keep the… secret.
But even with those two explanations, over time the two men had grown significantly more closer. Much closer than those two reasons would explain.
As Louis walked away, Donna watched as Mike and Harvey left the office, heading downstairs to a meeting with a new client. Donna didn’t miss the way that Harvey lifted an arm to brush a piece of lint that had landed on the back of one of Mike’s shoulders. The way his hand lingered just a split second longer than what was probably necessary.
Did Louis know something she didn’t know?
He couldn’t, he couldn’t. She knew Harvey better than she knew her own parents, and she certainly knew Mike well enough to know when the young man was keeping a secret.
Then she watched as Mike leant in to whisper something directly into Harvey’s ear. They were both too far away and at the wrong angle for her to see Harvey’s reaction, but…
Maybe Louis was onto something.
Harvey did have ‘Lunch with Mike’ scheduled on his calendar three times this week. Even on the days she and him planned to go out for the odd lunch together, it was never on either of their calendars.
Maybe Louis was onto something.
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When Jessica had first met Mike Ross, she thought the kid was cute in a ‘he’s twenty years younger than me and obviously doesn’t know anything about the real world,’ kind of way.
She had been pleased with Harvey; he had finally found someone to train, after years of her asking him to put some effort into teaching and guiding the new associates. It would admittedly be better if he put his attention into more than just Mike Ross, but small steps… small steps.
Speaking of Harvey and Mike, it brought up a conversation she had earlier that day…
Louis had come into her office, saying he needed to speak with her about a potentially inappropriate relationship he suspected between two employees at the firm.
“And you’re bringing this all the way to me because?” Jessica asked. Usually things like this were handled by HR, not her.
“Because it involves one of your senior associates,” Louis added.
That caught her attention.
“Who?” she asked.
“It’s Harvey and Mike Ross,” he said.
Jessica quickly connected the dots in her head of what she thought Louis was referring to. “You think Harvey is dating Mike Ross?” Jessica repeated Louis’s statement in the form of a question.
Louis paused, aware that his boss probably thought he was crazy at this point. “Um…” he fumbled over his words, reaching down towards his back to readjust that back of his suit jacket that didn’t need to be adjusted. “... Yes, that is correct.”
“And you think this because they keep secrets between each other?” she asked.
Louis gave a small nod and shrug of his shoulders. “Among other things,” he said.
“What other things?” she asked.
“Well…” Louis paused as he thought over how he was going to explain everything. “They get close a lot, physically I mean… Just look into Harvey’s office as you walk by. And Harvey pays way to close attention to him. Did you know he’s been to Mike’s apartment before? He’s met his grandmother?”
If Louis was talking about anyone else, she might have believed, or at least taken him seriously and looked into what he was saying.
But Louis was talking about Harvey and Mike. And even if she didn’t know that secret about Mike that she was told last month, she knew Harvey too well to not believe Louis.
That didn’t mean, as she happened to walk past Harvey’s office the next day and spied out of the corner of her eye the way Harvey tended to stand next to Mike just a little too closely.
Maybe Louis did have a point to come to the conclusion the two were dating.
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Rachel had been picking up papers from the printer in the office’s copy room when Louis appeared in the doorway, cornering her inside.
“Rachel,” he greeted her. “Can I ask you a question?”
She merely lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve never felt the need to ask me if you could ask a question before,” she said.
Louis rolled his shoulders. “I guess you have a point there,” he said.
“Just what do you want to ask?” Rachel asked, simply wanting to get back to her desk to finish the task she had been working on.
“You’re close with Mike Ross, correct?” Louis asked, and Rachel froze, nearly.
“What do you mean?” she asked. It was true that she and Mike had been growing close and spending a lot of time together, both in and outside of the office. There had also been the occasional time or two that she stopped what she was working on to help Mike with his assignments.
But what they had going on - it was still something neither of them wanted to be the talk of office gossip right now. Because office gossip about romantic relationships spread faster than rumors of a potential merger.
“I’ve seen you work together a couple of times,” Louis began. “He probably talks to you more than he does any of the other junior associates.”
Rachel looked at him warily. “What are you getting at?” she asked.
Louis nearly rolls his eyes. “I’ll just come out and ask it,” he began. “Are Harvey and Mike dating?”
Are Harvey and Mike dating?
Are Harvey and Mike dating?
Rachel felt like laughing. Mike dating Harvey?
The thought was hilarious.
“You can’t be serious?” she said. But Louis didn’t say anything, only continuing to look at her like he was deadly serious.
“Fine then, if they’re not dating, do you know if they’re having… you know?” he asked.
“What? Having sex? A friends with benefits situation?” she asked, still thinking the entire thought was hilarious.
“Well are they?” he asked.
“They’re not Louis,” she said. “They’re not,” she repeated as she made her way past Louis back to her office.
Louis didn’t believe her. Rachel was obviously too close to Mike to see the signs.
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The rumors all came to a head when Mike went out that one night with Harold, trying to break the man from the tension that had been building on his shoulders.
Mike ran his thumb on the label of his bottle of beer, Harold moping next to him after his nth less-than-stellar performance review since he had started working at the firm.
“Look man,” Mike began in his attempt to cheer the other man up out of the funk his work life had dropped onto him. “I’ve seen some of the work you’ve produced. You’re smart, you know your stuff, you can… we just need to find a way for you to shine and-”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Harold grumbled, saying under his breath “I’m not the one dating the boss.”
“What was that?” Matt asked. It was getting loud in the bar, and growing hard to hear the other man when he spoke at a normal volume, let alone when he was talking under his breath.
Harold rolled his eyes as he looked back up at Mike. “Come on, man,” he said. “It’s plainly obvious to everyone.” Then he leant in to say something into Mike’s ear. “I don’t have any problems with it, by the way, you can be honest with me.”
Mike leant back slightly, completely confused and caught off guard, almost on the brink of laughing at where this conversation was going. “What are you talking about?”
Harold looked at Mike like he couldn’t believe Mike was still trying to hide it. “You and Harvey,” he said, and Mike continued to look at him with pure confusion. “We all know you’re dating.”
Mike blinked, his face one of surprise and confusion. “... What?!” he nearly yelled before he started laughing. “You think… you think we’re dating.” The whole thought was hilarious to Mike, he couldn’t stop laughing.
Only Harold wasn’t laughing. “You’ve heard the rumors, haven’t you,” Harold eventually said.
Mike’s laugh trailed off. “What rumors?”
“That you and Harvey are dating,” Harold said. “Just about everyone has heard them.”
Mike shook his head, not believing what he was hearing. “Who even told you this?” he asked.
“Louis,” Harold said after he took a sip of his beer.
Mike laughed harder.
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“Did you know almost everyone in the office thinks we’re dating?” Mike asked Harvey one morning.
Harvey laughed when he processed Mike’s question. “What are you talking about?”
“Everyone out there,” Mike pointed outside the glass walls. “They all apparently think we’re dating.”
“Everyone?” Harvey asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“Everyone,” Mike said. “Even Donna has her suspicions.
Harvey cocked his head to the side. “And why would they think that?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Mike threw his hands up in the air. “Maybe it's because you nitpick every single thing I do. Maybe it’s because I can’t do anything in this place without you nosing your way into it. Maybe it’s because no one can ask me anything here without going through you first.”
“What are you trying to say?” Harvey asked.
“This is your fault,” Mike said.
“ My fault?” Harvey asked. “Like you never initiate some of this stuff?”
“You’re the boss,” Mike said. “Therefore it’s your fault.”