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His father had always told him about soulmates. About Soulmates, about love, about colors.
The touch of your soulmates gave you colors. Before you would meet him, your whole world was just in different shades of grey. After meeting your soulmates, after touching them, the world was colorful and bright.
Harvey had never understood what that meant. Nobody was able to understand before meeting their soulmate. Because there was no chance before to see colors and to know what it meant.
In clothes, it was always sewed in which color they had, in things like pillows as well, and there were TV shows, classes and clubs about which color you should wear and use at which time, which colors went well together, and which colors were more enjoyable in which combination for people who were able to see them.
Some people who couldn’t see made some kind of sport out of it and let people, who could see, judge their outfits. Others weren’t interested in it at all, never looked at what color they bought and didn’t understand what was so bad with certain combinations – that often ended when they finally were able to see colors themselves.
Not everyone met their soulmate. But enough did.
It was commonly assumed that most people had somehow even more than one soulmate. Because so many people had the fortune of meeting theirs though the world were so big and there were so many people. And because, sometimes after an early death of one of the partners, it happened that the other one met a new person and gave that person colors as well. That never happened when the first soulmate still lived.
Whole sciences searched in this matter. In soulmates in general. It never had been different but it was still just a great mystery.
It was rumored that there were experiments to give colors to children, independent of them finding their soulmates – some people thought of this as very unethical, because how would you then know if you found your perfect match?
There were people who never met their soulmate. Conservative people didn’t deem it appropiate for two people to love each other in their grey worlds and to marry and to start a family.
Harvey‘s father never saw colors as well. But he had always told Harvey that his mother still made his world bright.
Back then, Harvey always had to smile about it. And it was only because of those words that he was sure that he also would find happiness.
He never really believed that he would meet his soulmate himself, were there millions and millions of people on this world and did it just seem so unlikely to meet the one. And who was actually able to say that everyone even had a soulmate? Some had more than one – possibly some hadn’t one at all? He had never felt like he had a soulmate out there while others had been so sure about theirs.
But his father had been happy without his soulmate and therefore he could be happy without one as well.
Then, he had walked in on his mother with someone else; and that hadn’t even been her own soulmate which possibly would have been understandable.
Since then, he didn’t believe in love anymore. He definitely didn’t believe that he would ever find his own soulmate, had he deserved it much less than his father who had been a much better man.
And he, Harvey, would never love anyone else, would never trust anyone in that way, if it wasn’t the person meant for him.
But by now he understood what his father had meant when he had said his mother would make his life bright. He himself couldn’t see colors and still didn’t quite understand what those words meant but he knew that his world also had colors in some way, was bright, since he met Donna.
Mike’s parents had tried everything to let him take part in their colorful world.
They had told him regularly how they had first met. How their eyes had seemed so different to each other already.
There were some people who said they were able to see the eyes of their soulmate in colors, even before they touched. They just weren’t able to describe it, to know what it meant, until upon the touch their whole world exploded in colors.
His parents had been two of those people. They had realized that something had been different about the other person when they had first seen each other in the course for the further education. They had started talking because of it but it had been on the second day that Mike’s father had given his mother a coffee during the break, their hands had finally touched shortly and the world had stopped for a moment. Suddenly, it had been full of color and they had looked around them, confused by the sudden unnameable change.
His mother had always told him in loving detail about every color and sometimes, Mike had been sure to saw them just by her discribtion.
She had told him how warm some colors were, how she always connected red to the crackling campfire at which she had sat with his father on their third date.
She had also told him about cold colors, which were beautiful as well, like the sky and the water in endless blue. About his eyes in which she loved to get lost.
His father had explained to him, which colors were inside a rainbow and why, how colorful lights always seemed, how incredibly bright nature always was.
Mike had always been interested in it. Sometimes, he had even known which grey was which color, than any of his classmates.
Then suddenly, his parents hadn’t been there anymore. One day they had been there, the next day they were gone. With them, he had lost any eye for colors he ever had.
He had started to hate it whenever someone else spoke about colors.
But he had obsessed over soulmates. He had read books about the probabilities of soulmates and what it was like to meet them.
Usually, he had thought about his parents while reading, and about everything they had ever told him.
He hadn’t thought about himself or about him finding his own soulmate. His world had suddenly been so empty and he had felt like he would drown in the endless grey that he never thought that one day a person could come an fill his world with colors.
His grandmother never told him that he would find colors for himself. Because it wasn’t about soulmates, it wasn’t about colors. It was about the child who had just lost his parents and all the beautiful things in life connected to them.
She had tried to tell him stories like his parents always had. Not only about colors but about life in general.
But it had just made his world duller and greyer.
Sometimes, he didn’t know how it had happened but at some point in his life, he just totally screwed up. From time to time, he wanted to blame Trevor for it but he knew that he was the only one to blame. After all, he was the one who smoked pot to escape reality. He was the one who had agreed to sell the math test. Since then, he was the one who took test for others, earned himself money that way. He was the one who wasn’t able to get on his feet off of the ground.
Sometimes, he told himself that he wasn’t on the ground, that he just enjoyed his life. In Harvard and afterwards as a lawyer, he would have had to work very hard. Now, he just lived his life und spent much of his time with his best friend and different women. It was good this way, wasn’t it? Better than all the hard work?
But he knew that he would love every day with hard, but satisfying work, with demanding work much more than this. He just didn’t know a way back.
Whenever he was stoned, he didn’t think about all the things he lost, what he could have done with his life or possibly still was able to do if he honestly tried. His world even seemed bright and colorful when he was stoned enough.
Whenever he was sober, his world just got greyer and duller still. And every life goal seemed too far away.
He knew: If someone would reach out to him, if someone would give him any chance for more, he would take it. But who would ever reach out to him?
The idea to sell drugs, to actually do the drop, war idiotic. But he needed the money. For his grandmother who had done so much for him.
But it turned out differently. Before he knew what was happening, he stood in front of a woman who he should get to know really well and was adressed as ‚Rick Sorkin‘.
He was put on the spot when she asked him why she should even let him in and just told the truth – he didn’t want to get into the room, he just wanted to get away from the cops.
He was very confused when the woman let him into the room only shortly after. So confused in fact that he didn’t realize how different and... warm the eyes of the man who waited for him looked.
At the age of 39 years, Harveys life was pretty much perfect. He had an incredible carrier which he worked hard for and enjoyed every day of, he was at peace with the world and himself, had a good relationship to his brother and his family, had Donna and people like Jessica in his life... and finally he was even Senior Partner.
It wouldn’t take that long anymore until his name would be upt that wall.
And yes, his world was still grey but he didn’t need colors. He didn’t need a soulmate. After all, he had everything else.
He wasn’t really excited that he now had to get an associate – he worked better alone. But this was how it was done and if Jessica expected him to...
But the interviews took way too long already and he wasn’t even halfway through. And not one of the people he spoke to convinced him at all.
Anyhow, Donna promised with a wink that this young man would be different, before she sent him through – that generated his curiosity at an instance.
‚Hi, er, Rick Sorkin,‘ the man said, hesitantly.
Harvey was too distracted by the bright eyes of the man, so he didn’t pick up the hesitation. Something was different about them.
He tried not to show it as he confidently walked up to him. ‚Harvey Specter, nice to meet you.‘
Their hands were about to touch each other for a greeting, when the young man made one more step towards him, bumped against the briefcase in his hand with it, who brusted open and spilled its contents on the floor.
‚Whoa,‘ Harvey said and put both his hands in his pockets. ‚What’s this?‘
The man with the unusual eyes looked to the ground, up again, back to the drugs and finally settled on Harveys eyes. ‚I... I can explain.‘
Shortly after, both of them were seated on opposite sites of the desk and the man explained. He explained that his actual name was Mike Ross, that he had this friend, Trevor, who dealt with drugs. That he needed 25.000 dollars for his grandmother and would have gotten it for the drop. That it was supposed to happen at this hotel, but that it had obviously been a set up, at least he saw those two guys who were definitely cops.
Harvey didn’t know exactly why the man explained so thoroughly, why he didn’t flee as fast as he could – after all, he hadn’t even known his real name. But possibly, he had expected that Harvey would somehow hold him and turn him over to the police. Especially since the policemen who nearly trapped him seemed to have followed him and possibly were on the other side of the door as they spoke.
But Harvey didn’t intent to tell on him. He was rather amused by the story. And by the man who told it.
Interested, he asked how Mike could have possibly known that the strangers were cops, and he actually told him about a book he once read!
‚You read a novel... in elementary school,‘ he repeated and Mike was much more relaxed by now and had to smile slightly: ‚What? I like to read.‘
‚ Then why’d you ask them what time it was?‘ Harvey asked further and that answer was incredible as well and he just had to say: ‚We should hire you.‘
But even though Mike of course was ready to accept the offer on the spot... He didn’t only not go to Harvard, he obviously never went to any law school.
Mike on the other hand claimed he wasn’t just able to consume knowledge like noone Harvey ever met but he actually passed the bar. And he actually really was able to quote something out of the BarBri Legal Handbook Harvey picked and random. He learned it when he studied for the bar, he said.
It was unbelievable how confident and self-assured Mike was as es said it, how he said that he was able to do everything.
Of course, Harvey had to challenge him. But it didn’t seem to be a real challenge for Mike. Mike beat him though he didn’t use the laptop. He just knew cases and rules for stock option backdating.
‚How can you know all that?‘ Harvey asked, admittedly fascinated.
Mike answered: ‚I told you: I like to read. And once I read something, I understand it, and once I understand it, I never forget.‘
‚Why take the bar?‘ Harvey wanted to know.
Mike explained that as well: ‚This dickhead bet me I couldn’t pass it without going to law school.‘
It was incredible. The way he said it so casually...
But it didn’t change a thing. He had never gone to any law school and Harvey couldn’t give him the job. Though the thought was appealing, to get to know Mike better, to spend more time with him seemed somehow appealing. Because Mike was just so much more interesting than most people Harvey knew – and without a doubt he was pretty intelligent which Harvey always enjoyed.
But he really couldn’t give him the job. And he just said it when he looked out of the room. He saw who else he could pick from, eager people who made an effort to look as decent as possible as soon as they saw him. They were absolutely pure apple-polisher who possible could get far because they were bright and young – but who could never get as far as he was.
He turned again to look at Mike and slowly went back to him. ‚If your want this job so much, why didn’t you just go to law school?‘
Mike was just as open about that as he was about everything before and finally told him how much he wished for a way back.
And it was insane. The idea was just so insane but what if he would give Mike a chance?
Mikes answer to the slight suggestion was genius again. He said he would school those Harvard douches and become the best lawyer, Harvey had ever seen. Exactly what he searched for. Confidence. Conviction.
And when Harvey mentioned more doubt another answer convinced him: ‚Sometimes, I like to hang out with people who aren’t that bright. You know... Just to see how the other half lives.‘
Harvey hid a grin. That was all he needed.
‚Move over. I’m emailing the firm I just found our next associate,‘ he said und Mike made way with a stunned face, so Harvey could sit down in front of his laptop once more.
While he wrote the email he gave his first instructions to his new associate. When he would start, that he wasn’t allowed to take drugs anymore, that he shouldn’t be in contact with Trevor anymore, that he needed to buy new suits...
‚We’ll see each other Monday next week,‘ he finally said as he stood again and went up to Mike. He extended his hand, wanted to shake the other man’s before he would send him away. He had to tell Donna to send the other candidates away as well. Possibly, she already had done it, shortly after Mike went in.
But it was in that moment their hand’s touched that he forgot everything he wanted to do.
Something happened. The world change. Not in an instant, but it started at their touching hands at which they looked down in surprise. It went over their bodies, through the room and then out to the rest of the world.
Their hands didn’t part; it was as if they couldn’t. Both of them looked up, into each other’s eyes, then around in the room.
For the first time in their lives, they both actually saw colors. Nobody had to aexplain it to them. They knew was they suddenly saw – and what it meant.
Their eyes met again and Harvey realized that Mike’s eyes had had colors already when he had come into the room, way before they had even touched each other. A beautiful bright color.
Stunned, they looked at each other far to long, absorbed each other more than their surroundings, the world of color which just opened itself up to them. The colors seemed uninteresting in light of the person who gave them to them.
‚Wow,‘ Mike finally said.
Instinctively, Harvey squeezed Mike’s hand which still layed in his and both smiled slightly.
They had found each other.