"Yes- yes, I know, Mom, yeah, I'm at work, goodbye!" Felicity quickly hung up her phone, then flopped down into her chair. She sighed loudly.
"What's the matter?" came Sara's voice as she sauntered into Felicity's office.
"My mom. According to her, we simply must go to the annual something-or-other gala, because the amazingly rich Oliver Queen is coming to it and bringing his amazingly rich friend."
"Yeah, I heard about that," replied Sara. "Honestly, I'd go because Oliver Queen is gorgeous and filthy rich, but-"
Felicity interrupted, "No, see, Oliver Queen and his- friend are also single. And everyone knows that rich, single men desperately need to get married. To me and my sisters. Because we're all such catches. I mean- Laurel is a catch, but she's Gorgeous Laurel, and the rest of us are not. I mean we are, but- I'm babbling. Again. Why didn't you stop me?"
"Because it's cu- funny," said Sara, a smirk growing on her face. "Well, if it's any consolation, I'll be there too. My mom said I'm going because even if I don't score anyone hot like Oliver and his friend, I'll still have a chance to meet someone who will save me from becoming a crazy cat lady."
"Sounds like our moms have been talking to each other," Felicity replied. "Although I'm going to assume she didn't actually say you'd become a crazy cat lady. Because- that sounds like something you'd say."
"It was implied," said Sara. "It's like she's living in the 19th century, where any woman who's 25 and single is clearly resigned to being single forever. At least that was what I heard."
Felicity smiled, and was about to reply, but her phone rang. "Aaand work calls. Literally. Lunch at Panera?"
"Sure," replied Sara, who ducked out of Felicity's office area and went off to her own neighboring one. Felicity sighed, pasted a smile on her vivid pink lips, and picked up the phone. "Felicity, I need you to come check on something," came Aiden's voice. "Can you come to my office now?"
"Sure," Felicity said. "I'll be right there." She hung up, got up and sighed. There went her theory that her panda flats could make her day perfect. Aiden, her "supervisor", was a nice guy, but he knew so much less about coding than she did that he always called her to help him out. Then again, the whole "knowing less than Felicity" thing was fairly common here in the IT department at Microsoft- Felicity Smoak was a computer genius, after all.
The rest of the morning passed by in a blur of coding and helping, so that by the time she and Sara went to lunch, she was grateful to get out of the building. On her way out, Felicity texted Laurel to see if she wanted to meet up with her and Sara.
Laurel's reply came just as Felicity and Sara were exiting the building. Sure. Where?
Panera on 8th.
Great, I'll be there in 20.
"Laurel's apparently joining us," Felicity said as she put away her phone.
"Cool," replied Sara. "How do you think she'll feel about going to the gala?"
"She'll definitely think that going to a ball would cut into her work hours, which could be used to help the people of this city fight against the corrupt upper class that's ruining their lives," Felicity replied. "But she'll say she doesn't mind, because she's sweet like that."
As it turned out, Felicity's prediction was correct. Laurel was saying something about meeting people and enjoying galas, but Felicity could see the slight crease between her eyebrows that indicated that Laurel wasn't looking forward to the gala as much as she said. Still, even if she didn't enjoy it, she'd still be one of the main attractions at the gala- there was a reason she was nicknamed Gorgeous Laurel.
"…anyway, I need help picking out a dress," Felicity heard Sara say, and realized that she'd zoned out. "So we're going to rifle through your closets to see if there's anything that'll fit me."
"I might need some help too," said Laurel. "I want to make sure I look good enough."
"Laurel- and this is with the greatest amount of respect- you could probably wear a potato sack and look beautiful," Felicity replied. "And Sara, you should definitely come over tomorrow for dinner- Mom's making pot roast, and afterwards we can go through dresses. I need one that makes my ass look good."
"So basically any dress you own," said Sara with a smirk.
"Well- okay, yeah, that's true," replied Felicity. "Wait- have you been looking at my ass?"
Felicity saw a flash of fear on Sara's face before her expression morphed into a smile and she answered, "Yeah." Something in her expression seemed to say deal with it, so Felicity filed that away for later and continued talking.
After they were finished eating, Felicity and Sara started walking back to the office. On the way there, Felicity's phone chimed with a text alert. She pulled it out to see that she had a text from Iris West.
There was a spike in his brain activity just now. I'll let you know if there's any more news.
Felicity stopped, rereading the text. Sara continued walking for a few steps before she noticed Felicity wasn't next to her, then turned around and walked back. "What's the matter?"
"Apparently," Felicity said, taking a shaky breath, "There was a spike in Barry's brain activity just now. So maybe he'll- wake up soon."
Sara pulled Felicity into a hug. "Hey, he will wake up," she said reassuringly. "And chances are, this spike might mean it'll be sooner rather than later."
"Yeah," Felicity said. "And, the doctors did say that the fact that he survived the lightning strike means that he's got a good chance of getting better."
"Exactly," replied Sara. "Now, changing the subject back to something more cheerful, is your whole family going to the gala?"
"Yep," answered Felicity, popping the 'p'. "My mom probably wants them to get husbands too. Well, maybe not for McKenna or Shado, but Sin's 21, so the fact that she hasn't had a boyfriend yet is worrying to her."
They talked for a few more minutes before they got back to work, where they went to their offices. When Felicity was alone in hers, she sighed. She might have tried to downplay it, but she really did want to date someone. Well, okay, someone decent and attractive, but since her last dating attempt had been almost 3 years ago, she was feeling a bit lonely. Besides, occasionally going clubbing and having one-night stands was fun, but still couldn't erase the feeling of loneliness.
Well, maybe I'll meet someone at the gala, she thought. With that thought, she turned her laptop back on and checked her email, then dove into her work.