In Love With A Good Man

Chapter 9: Doubts

That night at Casey's house, Harley found herself unable to fall asleep. Casey was already fast asleep, but there she was still tossing and turning next to him.

She just couldn't shake this nervous feeling – this uncertain anxiety from not knowing what she was going to do next...

Harley turned towards the edge of the bed and picked up her phone. She quickly pulled up her text conversation with Ivy. She sent her a quick message: "Hey Red you up?"

She set the phone down on her stomach and rested her hands over the back, waiting to feel it vibrate. She closed her eyes and tried to lay still on her back, but it was hard for her to do that even when she wasn't troubled by all these thoughts.

Finally, after a few long minutes, she felt the phone vibrate gently. She held it up and looked at Ivy's response:

"Yes. Is everything okay?" She asked. Harley sighed a little and sent her reply.

"I'm not sure..." She left an honest reply. It wasn't long this time before she got another response.

"What's wrong?"

"Well I'm staying with Casey and he said the only way our relationship can work is if I go straight and do no more crimes...I agreed cause I wanna try and get away from the chaos but...I don't know if I can" She explained.

"Really? I always thought the chaos was your thing..." Ivy said. Even through text, Harley could hear her doubtful tone. And she could understand why – this was a huge change for her, and she was even surprising herself with this sudden, drastic shift.

"yeah...but now I'm actually good without it now...especially being with Casey now" It took her awhile to draft that brief reply.

"Harley...are you sure you're not just doing this for him?" Ivy asked again. Harley sighed, looking over at Casey sleeping peacefully next to her. She wanted to touch him, but she didn't want to wake him up, so she just imagined stroking his hair for a moment before answering Ivy's question.

"Partly...but I'm doing this for me also...I wanna try...and besides chaos was more of my thing when I used to be with Joker" She pointed out. She had a bad habit of mirroring the behaviors and desires of the person she loved, and she recognized that.

"Fair enough. Anything's better than the Joker was"

"yeah DEFINITELY!...do you think I can do it Ive?" She asked worriedly. She waited with bated breath for Ivy's answer. She could always count on Poison Ivy to give her an honest opinion. When her phone vibrated, she immediately opened it to see her answer.

"Well you know me girl I'll support you regardless. If this is what you think you want, go for it. But you have to go for it all the way. I sense that Casey won't accept less, considering he already dumped you once."

"yeah true...I wanna at least try to make this work...he's really an amazing guy"

"He seems okay. Definitely not from around here" Ivy guessed. Harley chuckled a little to herself.

"Yeah he's basically new in town...definitely different and it feels great and nice!" Harley typed enthusiastically, adding a smiley face emoji at the end.

"Long as you're careful. I can't deny you seem happy, so just do your best" Ivy said conclusively.

"I will! Thank you Ive! I'll come visit you as soon as I can!" Harley promised.

"I'm sure my babies will be happy to see you again love" Ivy responded more pleasantly.

"awww! I miss em! Give them a kiss for me!"

"I will dear. Anything else you need?"

"nope! That was it! Thanks Ive!" Harley threw in another smiley face emoji.

"Anytime" Ivy replied simply.

"love you!"

"Heheh love you too Harl. Sleep tight"

"I will! Gnight Ivy!" Harley said, throwing in a kissy face emoji and three red hearts.

"Night night"

"Night night!" Harley finally let her be, throwing in one last smiley face emoji before setting her phone down.

After airing everything out to Ivy, now she was already feeling better. Maybe not fully confident yet, but definitely reassured enough to be able to relax and finally go to sleep...

Harley woke up feeling well-rested, although she had a bit of a headache coming on. As usual, Casey was already awake. She stretched her arms out and yawned before getting up and making her way downstairs. Casey was on the phone in the kitchen.

"Yeah! I have to go in on Wednesday for orientation, but soon I'll be able to start full-time...yeah, I'll let you know my schedule when I get it. Thanks for all your help, June, I really appreciate it. Okay, gotta go now, bye." He quickly ended the call and pocketed his phone when he saw Harley coming down the stairs.

"Morning, Caseyyy." Harley greeted him with a smile, walking up to him and kissing him. He chuckled and returned the kiss.

"G'morning, Harley. How are you feeling? You seemed like you were having a little trouble sleeping last night." He pointed out.

"Yeahhh...did I wake you?" She asked.

"A little bit, just the one time. I fell back asleep right away. I was dead tired last night." He answered with a chuckle.

"Heheh, yeah...I was just feeling really nervous about this whole thing. I haven't not done crime for years now. I was talking to Red about it because I wasn't so sure if I could actually pull it off or not." She admitted.

"Really? What makes you feel that way?" Casey asked curiously, resting against the kitchen counter.

"It's just a toughie. It's gonna take time to get used to, that's all. But I feel much better now! I'm ready to give it a try, honey bun!" She said with a smile, giving him a big hug.

"Ugh," Casey chuckled and returned the hug, groaning a little at that pet name. "Well I'll do what I can to help you if you think you can do it."

"Really?" She asked, looking up at him.

"Of course. I already promised. I'll have to figure something out, but I'm sure we can come up with something." He said with a chuckle.

"Yeah? I trust you, baby." Harley said, walking two fingers up his chest.

"Then we'll find a way to make it work," Casey said with a little smile. "In the meantime, I actually got that job at the bank, the one I was telling you about."

"Oh that's great, honey!" Harley said with a smile. The last time she'd set foot in a bank, she was stealing money. She chose not to bring that up.

"Yeah! I start next week."

"Okay. Maybe I should think about getting a job...yuck. I haven't had a job in like 4 years." Harley realized.

"Heheh, that might not be a bad idea. I'll take a look around." He offered.

"Maybe. In the meantime, I'll cook you a good home-cooked meal every day when you get home from work! Ooh, what's your favorite meal? I can make that tonight to celebrate!" She exclaimed, excitedly bringing up the idea as soon as she'd thought of it.

"Oh, you don't have to do that, baby." Casey brought up.

"But I wanna! Come on, spill it! Favorite food, go!" She insisted.

"Haha, I like lasagna...but I like it a really specific way. If you really wanna make it, I'll text you the recipe." He said.

"That'll be perfect! Lasagna's a classic!" Harley giggled. Casey chuckled and gave her a kiss, which she happily returned.

She was already feeling more optimistic about her chances...