Board With the Board

By marykent in collaboration with the wonderful BlueSuedeShoes

Chapter 1

"Oliver, you're not making me sit through another boring meeting. It will be my third pointless meeting today," exclaimed an irate Felicity Smoak, who was looking not a little bit sexy, fuming in her 'personal assistant to the CEO of Queen Consolidated' outfit, if Oliver acknowledged that he noticed. Which he definitely did not. Acknowledge it, that is.

"Felicity, we all have to maintain our image," Oliver flashed her a little smirk before looking back at the spreadsheets on his computer screen. He felt bad about removing her from what she referred to as her "calling" as an IT girl, but not enough to prevent him from enjoying ruffling her feathers. It was not his fault that she was cute when she was annoyed. It made it very difficult not to provoke her sometimes. Aside from that, he liked having her close. In addition to the basic necessity of having her there to discuss missions, he liked having her around much better than his former executive assistant, an ornery, disapproving 60-year-old named Mrs. Cravitz, who had–opportunely–quit after the disaster in the Glades.

Felicity huffed. "But I don't have any business being there. I went to MIT for computer science. I am not trained to sit in board meetings for hours pretending to take detailed notes for you on Queen Consolidated letterhead."

"Too bad," remarked Oliver while standing up and heading to the door. "How does my tie look?" he pressed his lips together, trying not to smile at how exasperated she looked.

Unable to stop herself, Felicity reached up and straightened the half Windsor knot in his tie.

Before she realized what Oliver was doing, he had grabbed her hand and pulled her out of his office toward the conference room. Tricked again. But Felicity couldn't help but enjoy being dragged around by Oliver. Perhaps she could pretend that they were infiltrating an enemy conference room on a mission for information. It was more interesting than reality at least.

Bored, Felicity thought. Bored by the board. Today's agenda was discussing the possible acquisition of a portion of Warren Patel's company that slowly disintegrated following his incarceration after the Unidec auction. Felicity could have told them within three minutes of hacking into Patel's bullet riddled laptop over a year ago that his company was involved in stuff would finish off what remained of the Queen Consolidated reputation, especially when they were already in fiscally unstable waters following the Malcolm Merlyn fiasco. But two of the board members were adamant, and Felicity had to maintain her cover as Oliver's useless secretary. Personal assistants didn't have the same influence in the vote as Isabel Rochev. The corners of Felicity's mouth fell a little bit every time she looked at Isabel. The correlation between the intensity of her frown and the Isabel's proximity to Oliver was no coincidence either.

Boredom for a tech geek like Felicity was a difficult thing to endure. At best, it usually resulted in perusing the latest threads on tech websites, checking for comments about the newest coding techniques, and searching for new intel on people related to the List. Those topics would suck her into a focused trance where nothing but she and the computer existed. In other words, it would be obvious to every member of the board that she was in her own little world. As a result, she needed an innocent distraction.

She locked eyes with Oliver and a delightful idea dawned on her. A smirk formed on her lips that had Oliver shifting in his seat uncomfortably. He redirected his attention elsewhere, but his eyes darted subtly in her direction multiple times, concerned about what she might be up to.

She would make him an online dating profile, she decided, pulling up matchmaker sites instantly. It was the perfect way to show how irritated she was with board meetings. And when she eventually revealed how she spent what might otherwise have been very productive time in the meeting–at just the right moment, of course. A girl needed leverage now and again – a little crease would form in between his eyes. She smiled to herself. Oliver didn't reveal much about what he was thinking. But that little crease in between his eyes was his tell, and she thought it was cute. She made it her mission to be responsible for it as much as possible.

Serves him right, she thought, a devilish glint in her eyes as she began inputting Oliver's information, all of which she had made it a point to memorize ages ago.

Her quest began easily enough. Name: Oliver Queen. Hmm…it wouldn't have the same impact if she used an alias. Then again, perhaps the press would catch wind of her practical joke if she didn't use an alias. Oliver King it was then.

Then came the exciting part: providing descriptions of his hobbies. Rescuing damsels in distress, hunting vermin, archery (I was doing it before Katniss made it popular), and abruptly ditching work for exotic destinations on a whim. Would you like to join me?

That was brilliant, Felicity thought to herself. It was actually completely true but it seemed so unlikely that no one would believe it all. What's more, Oliver would be furious.

The board was beginning to stand up. That was her queue to usher everyone out of the meeting. She quickly set down her tablet and began to accompany the daft looking business man sitting next to her out of the room. When she noticed Oliver look her way and then look at the tablet she quickly picked it back up. She would have to keep an eye on it or a suspicious little vigilante would investigate. Turning her back to him, she shook the hands of the board members while they exited.

For once, she was looking forward to the next meeting on the schedule so she could complete her little project.

"Morning, Felicity. Do you have the notes from the meeting yesterday?" asked Oliver as he sat down at his desk. He quickly spun his chair around facing away from Felicity as he turned his computer monitor on.

After realizing she was staring, Felicity quickly averted her eyes; he was looking particularly nice in a blue pinstripe suit.

"Felicity? Did you hear me?" he questioned.

Felicity jumped a little at the sound of his voice. "Ugh, what was that?"

"Notes – do you have them?" he repeated.

She blinked at him, her face blank.

"Yesterday in that last meeting. You were taking notes. I need them now so that I can figure out my official recommendation to the board about whether we should purchase the subsidiary of Patel's company." By the end he was about ready to start huffing. Judging by Felicity's expression he was not going to like what she would say.

Felicity flattened her lips into a thin line before she began, "First, let me remind you I am not a secretary. I am posing as a secretary. The important difference between those two positions is that I am not obligated to actually wait on you hand and foot. If you want notes, you should take them. Secondly, do you remember nothing of the bullet ridden laptop you gave me? That company will destroy Queen Consolidated if someone takes a close look at their business transactions." She redirected her attention to her computer screen but couldn't help but think that she would gladly wait on him hand and foot.

"I know that company has a dark side, but I have to play the part of the head of a board not a one man dictatorship when the board official votes. That means I need to review yesterday's meeting notes. At MIT you took notes in class right? You are more than capable of taking notes in a meeting. It definitely looked like you were taking notes yesterday," Oliver challenged her.

Felicity lifted her chin and replied, "Well if you must know, I was not taking notes." Her eyes darted toward her tablet where she recalled creating a dating profile, and she bit back an amused smile. "But I did notice that the head of the board was taking his own notes. Why don't you follow his example?"

Oliver pinched the bridge of his nose. His relaxed mood from when he entered the room had evaporated. Why did Felicity have to challenge him on everything? Why did it always have to be a battle? "Look, I'm sure you can get into the security feed and transcribe what happened at the meeting."

Felicity was frustrated. It was a no brainer; Queen Consolidated should not buy the company. Board members just liked to waste everyone's time with discussing nonsense but especially waste her time since she didn't have enough going on by being a fake secretary, IT guru, and sidekick. "If you want to know what happened why don't you ask Isabel?" Felicity scrunched up her nose as she said the other woman's name before ducking her head, concerned that Oliver could see her facial expression over the top of her monitor.

Vexed, Oliver left the office. Felicity turned and watched him leaving over her shoulder. She didn't want him going to talk to Isabel. As far as she was concerned, Isabel should go crawl under a rock and never come near her or Oliver ever again. Luckily, Oliver went the other direction down the hall. Felicity turned back to her computer and quickly began to call up the security from the previous day. Within no time, her fingers flew across the keyboard, recording the pertinent details from the meeting. Grudgingly, she did not fast-forward through all of Isabel's admittedly insightful contributions, but she didn't include all of Isabel's comments either.

While she worked, Oliver had stalked back into the office. She couldn't help periodically darting her eyes in his direction as he tried to put together his proposal. It was clear that he was becoming more and more agitated. Felicity bit her lip and clicked print on the document she had just typed. Then she slipped off her heels and quietly walked over to the printer. She laid the pages on the corner of Oliver's desk.

He jumped a bit when the pages entered his field of view and his surprised eyes quickly found hers. Apparently he was even more distracted than Felicity if she was able to sneak up on the otherwise incredibly alert Oliver Queen. "Here's the sparknotes version of the meeting yesterday. Sorry I didn't take notes for you," she added with a casual shrug.

He just nodded in response and she went back to her desk. She didn't even want to check on the reaction Oliver King's dating profile had attracted overnight now, she was overcome by guilt for whatever was eating at Oliver and keeping him distracted.