In Love With A Good Man

Chapter 12: First Day

It was the first day of work at Casey's new job at the bank. He woke up early that morning, showered, and got dressed in an ironed dress shirt and tie. Once he was ready, he stepped out of the bathroom and into the main bedroom.

He was surprised to find that Harley was no longer in bed. Had he accidentally woken her up? As he made his way downstairs, he could hear the faint sizzling of something cooking on the stove. He came down and found Harley in the kitchen making breakfast for both of them.

"Harley? What're you doing up so early?" He asked, walking towards her. Harley looked back at him and smiled.

"Mornin' baby! I made some breakfast for my favorite man!" She said with a laugh as she served up their plates. Casey looked at her in astonishment.

"Aww, you didn't have to do that, babe. It's early. You're not sleepy?" He asked.

"A little, but I wanted to see you off on your first day at the bank! I'm excited for ya!" She said with a giggle.

This moment gave Casey pause. Harley could see that her gesture had meant a lot to him, because he couldn't help but stare at her with a surprised but appreciative, loving expression. That was exactly what she'd been hoping for.

"Thanks babe," He said, going up to her and giving her a quick kiss. "You're the best." He said before taking his plate and sitting down to eat.

"Aww you're welcome hun!" She kissed back and giggled again before they sat down to eat.

The two of them shared breakfast in relative silence. Harley didn't want to hold Casey up too much since he had to leave shortly. However, something did happen towards the end of breakfast that soured the mood just a little bit.

As Casey was finishing up his food, he got a phone call. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and only looked at the caller ID for about a second before answering it...

"Yo...oh yeah? Really? Niiice," He said with a laugh. "Dope, guess we'll be working together, huh? ...haha okay. See you soon then, I guess! Bye, June." He said before hanging up and sliding his phone right back into his pocket.

A tinge of jealousy hit Harley immediately. Who was June? Hadn't she heard him mention her before? And to add onto that, Casey didn't feel the need to elaborate on what that phone call was. He finished his plate and stood up.

"Thanks for the food, baby," He said as he went back into the kitchen to rinse his dirty dishes off. "That was my friend June. She was the one who recommended this job for me. Turns out she's on shift today, so she's gonna help me get settled in on my first day." He explained.

"Oh...so she works there too?"

"Yep!" Casey answered with a nod.

"I see...hey, isn't she that girl who was with you at the bar when we first met? She was touching your arm and ruffling your hair." Harley recalled. If that was indeed June, then Harley already knew what she looked like: skinny with long, dark hair.

Pretty enough to get a guy's attention.

Casey's eyebrows furrowed as he thought back to the night he'd met Harley. His eyes absently shifted side to side a few times before suddenly lighting up, "Oh yeahhh! I'm surprised you even remember that!"

"Yeahhh...so that is June?" She asked to clarify. Unfortunately, Casey nodded his head.

"Yep. She's always been playful, heheh, but there's nothing to worry about there. I was planning on telling her about you, actually." He brought up.

"You were?" She asked.

"Yeah of course! My buddy Mac saw us so he knows about you. So I won't be surprised if she knows a little something about us already. But we're all best friends. Of course I'm gonna brag about you, baby." Casey said with a chuckle, saying that last sentence in a flirty little way.

That was a smooth way to save it.

"Aww," She giggled at this. "Sorry for my jealously, baby."

"Oh, were you jealous? I actually couldn't tell." He said with a chuckle as he collected his stuff to leave.

"Well, I didn't like that she did that." Harley admitted with a chuckle, referring to her 'playful' actions back at the club.

"Ahh, well there's nothing to be jealous of," He said to reassure her. Once he had all of his stuff, he walked over to her and gave her another kiss. "I'm heading out, babe. See you after work?" He asked. Harley returned the kiss.

"See you after work, baby." She replied.

"Alright. Love you." He said, walking to the door and opening it up before looking back and smiling at her.

"Love you too, sweetie." She said, blowing him a kiss. Casey smiled more, pretending to catch her kiss with his hand before spinning out the front door. This made Harley laugh a little.

"Have a good day, baby! And be careful!" She said, waving goodbye to him.

"I will!" He said before closing the door...

Being alone in Casey's home all day was about as boring as she'd expected it to be. She spent the whole day inside. After going back to sleep for a little longer, she got up and did a quick workout before making herself lunch. Then she watched some TV and texted back and forth with Ivy before getting a surprise ready for Casey.

It was a little past 5:30 in the evening when Casey came home from work. He opened up the front door and walked inside, closing the door with his foot and locking it. He rubbed his eyes and yawned a little. Then he was woken right up by Harley rushing to him and hug-attacking him.

"Baby!" She cheered happily, wrapping her arms around his neck, "How was your first day?!" She asked.

"Good!" Casey answered, giving her a hug. "It was good. Pretty chill. Nothing exciting haha I'm ready to shower and sit on the couch though." He said with a tired chuckle.

"I bet! Well I just finished makin' dinner for my man." Harley said, raising the pitch of her voice and speaking in an overly cutesy way, almost like talking to a baby. Casey groaned and chuckled at this.

"Oh gosh haha what did you make?" He asked.

"Your favorite again! Lasagna!" She answered with a laugh. Casey gasped happily at this.

"Yeah?! Yes!" He said excitedly. Harley laughed at this cute display.

"Aww, congratulations baby." She said with a smile, placing her hands on his cheeks and kissing him lovingly. Casey kissed her back and smiled afterwards.

"Thank you. Okay, let me take a quick shower so we can eat."

"Okay! I'll get our plates ready!" She said. She watched as Casey hurried up the stairs, presumably because he was excited to eat dinner. She watched this, giggling as she prepared their plates.

After about 10 minutes, Casey came down refreshed and in comfortable pajamas, "I forgot to ask, hun, how was it being home all day by yourself?" He asked curiously.

"Oh it was actually pretty peaceful! And I got to try some new recipes." She answered with a smile.

"Oh yeah? You gonna write a Harley Quinn cookbook?" He asked jokingly as he got himself something to drink from the fridge.

"Haha, that'd be funny!" Harley laughed.

"Yeahhh. How about 'Harley Quinn's Quick Meals'?" He suggested as they sat down on the couch with their plates.

"Ooooh! That's a catchy title! I need to write that down." She said with a giggle. The two shared a laugh over this before they started eating.

Casey picked up the TV remote and turned it on. He sat back and started aimlessly flipping through different channels. He only spent about a second on each channel before skipping to the next. Harley just ate and waited for him to pick something.

However, he landed on the channel for Gotham Tonight. For a brief moment, they both saw an image of the Joker onscreen. Casey had a noticeable reaction to this, flinching before changing the channel quickly. He had hoped that Harley hadn't seen it, but she did.

"Wait go back!" Harley quickly said.

"Huh? Why?" Casey asked, looking at her.

"I wanna see what they're talking about." She answered him seriously, motioning for him to change the channel back.

"O-Okay..." Casey said slowly before reluctantly switching back to the news.

"And in other news, it would appear that the Joker has developed a newer, far more potent batch of his deadly toxic gas. Police report 6 deaths and another 8 in the hospital after the dangerous toxin was released within the Gotham Port restaurant.

"There is no confirmation as to how much of this gas was dispersed, but the police recommend that for the time being, have a mask on hand, for a certain amount of the poison needs to be inhaled for there to be any serious effects. It could buy you a few valuable seconds.

"As always, Gotham Tonight will keep you posted on new developments as they happen..."

Harley shook her head at this. Then a thought entered into her head: Joker's still out there at large somewhere. Not knowing where he was worried her. Then she thought about Casey and started to get scared. Casey, noticing that Harley seemed off now, put a hand on her leg.

"Babe? You okay?" He asked slowly, looking at her with concern. She gasped and flinched at his touch before snapping back into the moment.

"Oh...I'm sorry, baby. I was too concentrated on the news." She excused herself, relaxing a little more.

"Talk me through what's going on, babe." He said.

"I'm worried, Casey...he could come after us...after me and...you." Harley said. Acknowledging this terrifying but very real possibility made Harley shake a little just out of fear.

"I thought you said that he didn't care about you like that." Casey brought up. Harley didn't respond to that right away...

"I'm scared, baby."

"Here, c'mere." He scooted closer to her and offered a hug. She leaned into his arms and wrapped her own around him. Casey could feel that she was still shaking.

"I don't know what he thinks now," Harley said. "But he could still come after us if he wanted to." She pointed out.

"I doubt we'd even be on his radar though. We're just ordinary people now, remember?" He pointed out, trying to reassure her as he held her.

"That doesn't matter to him. He goes after anyone, especially anyone that rubs him the wrong way. He does whatever he feels like doing." She said.

"...gotcha." Casey said with a sigh. He couldn't think of anything else to say.

Harley looked up at him and put a hand on his cheek, leaning in closer and pressing the tip of her nose against his. Casey rubbed her arm, unsure of what to do.

"What do you wanna do, babe?" He finally asked. Harley didn't have an answer to that question.

"I just wanna live...live with you." She answered.

"That's what we're doing already, right?"

"Yeah, of course, baby." She nodded a little and gave him a kiss.

"Then it'll be okay." Casey said after kissing her back. He couldn't be sure of that, but he was doing his best to stay optimistic.

"I promise to protect you no matter what, Casey." She said, suddenly sounding more determined.

"Protect me?" He repeated.

"From him, from mister..Joker. No matter what it takes, baby." She said.

"We'll watch each other's backs, okay? We're a team, remember?" He reminded her with a gentle smile.

"Yeah we are, baby." She replied with a little giggle, kissing him again.

Maybe it was crazy to say, but his reassurance actually did make her feel a little safer...