Harvey sighed as he got home from work and hung up his coat. The small apartment lit up as he went to the study to drop off his work bag, and then he proceeded to take a shower.

The water didn't love him, but it did soothe him as the heated water washed over his weary body, mind, and spirit.

Little else did these days.

Harvey walked to the kitchen and stared at his bare cupboards, and an empty fridge. He ran his hands through his hair and wondered why he bothered to leave the damn thing plugged in when there often nothing inside rather than things. Things like food.

With a half-hearted smile, Harvey dressed in his casual clothes, jeans and a t-shirt, before he grabbed his nice leather jacket. It was heavy, durable, and offered a great layer of protection.

The garage opened, letting in the autumn light. Or what was left of it.

Hervey walked over and ran a finger over his only love. Harley was the last girl in his life. The only girl in his life.

There were the four diamonds arranged to make a larger diamond. His way of naming his girl without actually writing it on her. Based on the crazy villain girl, Harley Quinn.

Harvey chuckled as he ran a thumb over the symbol. He often felt that he could connect with that fictional girl. Crazy in a crazy world. It only made sense that she was in fact now sane.

The engine roared to life, and Harvey closed his garage door before he peeled out from his home and to the only other place he frequented.

—

Pop’s diner was a mark in the town. The neon sign, the old white, and teal diner aesthetics. Old school food relatively unchanged from when he was a young man. Well kept, and lovingly maintained, it was a staple of the local life.

Though the original Pops eventually retired, his protege took up the job, and the name. Mr. Jones, or Pops, wore an easy smile and served good food. That was all that mattered to him.

The evening rush was already starting up when Harvey parked and made his way in. He got his usual booth and they began prepping for his usual order. A nice burger, steak fries, and a vanilla shake. Extra side of mayo and ketchup.

The meal came, and Harvey dug in. The food vanished fast enough that even Mrs. Jones, or Mum, shook her head. How was one supposed to taste anything when they didn’t even properly chew?

Harvey thanked Mum as she brought over a cup of decaf. There was a finger of cream already poured in. There was a spiral of milk as it was left unstirred, just like he loved it.

Harvey watched as the people moved in and out of the diner. Youths here for good food, and adults for a nice meal. The older folks like himself lived for the nostalgia.

Take the new cars for example. Shiny, with lots of bells and whistles. Yet underneath lay an engine that required insight, a steady hand, and some elbow grease.

Harvey found it poetic that he was sure that no in the shop would appreciate it. He let out an amused snort at the thought of his fellow mechanics being philosophical.

“Harvey?” a woman whispered. It was light enough that Harvey almost thought he was daydreaming.

With a slow turn of his head, Harvey stared at a blond-haired woman. Her soft face and blue eyes took him back nearly thirty years. Back to high school.

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The memories were fuzzy, but she stood out from them all. Their time together was crystal clear and was the measuring stick he had used for all of his subsequent partners.

“Hello, Serena. It’s been what? Thirty years?” Harvey asked as he compared themselves. She was his first girl who was a friend and first girlfriend.

She looked stunning, as she stood there in her form-hugging slacks. She looked like she had just stepped out of his memories, while his own face was worn and haggard. A difference in life he supposed.

Serena was always upbeat and optimistic. While he had taken a dour turn after a decade.

She slid into the booth opposite him with a shake in hand.

“Yeah… thirty years. How have you been?” she said as her eyes roved over him. His wrinkles were more pronounced now, and his skin was beginning to sag. His head also had more gray in it then the lush brown of his youth.

“Things are well. Did some traveling and now I am back. Yourself?” Harvey replied as he had little to talk about. After they had broken up over whatever, he had eventually moved to California. Where he went to the big cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego.

Then he ended up in smaller towns as the large cities were too loud and too expensive.

Then he had moved back to here. Greendale, New York.

Most people he knew had moved on. Going to bigger, and perhaps better places.

“Things have been… exciting,” Serena said as she stared into her first love’s eyes. She could see the dimness in them. Gone was that bright spark that once enraptured her.

“Good. Good!” Harvey said with a soft laugh. It was good to know that someone he once loved was doing so well.

“I… I am sorry, Harvey,” Serena said as she stared at him.

Harvey stared back. He was confused. “Sorry? Sorry for what? Is this about… what his name… Arnold?”

“No… Aaron and I broke up a year later. He had different goals in life… I am sorry that I cursed you,” Serena confessed as she grabbed one of his hands and squeezed it.

Harvey stared at her.

He had lovers. And loves. He had tried so hard to find a woman to call a wife.

Yet, in the end, it didn’t even matter. Each one had cheated on him shortly after they had sex.

It hurt more when he began to realize that they were happier with the new boys than with him.

Over.

And over.

And over.

Until he stopped trying.

A tear slid down his cheek.

“Look at me, going all sentimental,” Harvey said with a laugh as he pulled back his hand and brushed away the tears. “You are forgiven. I don’t even remember why we broke up, but I am sure it was over something stupid.” Even if magic was real, what was the point? The years had taken their toll, and now only this husk was left.

“Well I have that curse removed lickity split,” Serena said as her own misty eyes looked over the hallow man before her. She had made a mistake. A big mistake. Salem had always warned her about that spell and now she saw what she had wrought.

“Don’t bother. At this point, the curse is more of a friend than a hindrance,” Harvey laughed as he held down his tears. It was an old wound. A scar that throbbed. It hurt, but its power to harm had diminished greatly along with his youth.

“What?” she whispered back. How could he not want the curse removed?

“What love can I even find nowadays? I once wanted a family… I thought we could have had that once, I remember some thoughts on it. We were close during those days… Now? How could I ever father a child, much less support it,” Harvey replied as he brought his tears under control. “You married. You also had children, right?”

Serena nodded as her voice failed her. Harvey reached over and patted her hands.

“Give them a hug for me…” Harvey smiled as he fished out his money and left his amount onto the table. “It was good to see you again Serena. I hope that you can also forgive me for what happened back then.”

With a wave, Harvey picked up his jacket and said his farewells to Mum and Pop before he got up on Harley and drove home.

—

Serena watched as her first love drove away. Tears trailed down her face as clouds rolled into her small hometown. Rain began to spit down as Harvey turned a corner and vanished into the night.

The curse was now broken, she had seen to it with her own will. Yet the damage had been done hadn’t it?

His dreams of a proper family would never be realized. She had ensured that with an iron will. Her anger was so intense that day.

Then he just vanished and she forgot about it. Only today, when she was visiting her aunts and uncle that they were reunited. By chance, she had been shown the living proof of what misused power looked like.

She had broken a man with her arrogance of youth, and nothing but the most powerful of magics could fix that.

Magics that relied on true love that they no longer possessed towards each other.

The rain intensified as her mood crumbled.

Alone in the diner booth, Serena wept and the skies mirrored her tears and drenched the world with her sorrow.