Dinner

An: I do not own Arrow. This is part 1 of the High School History Series. Thank you to my lovely beta missmeagan666 at Ao3.

Summary: Oliver is late to a dinner date that he had invited Felicity too. Felicity's first crush sees her alone at the restaurant and decides to intrude upon her date.

Felicity stared at the empty seat across from her.

It was supposed to be occupied by Oliver but she couldn't be angry with him.

She knew he was out saving the city. It had been one year since that night in Nanda Parbat and tonight was their anniversary. Oliver had wanted to wine and dine her but she had told him he didn't have to and that she was happy as long as she was in his arms but he insisted that he wanted to do it the right way. He wanted to do this normal thing that couples do and with the way he was looking at her, she had caved.

He had made a reservation at Table Salt for 8:00pm and he had conspired with Jerry for Felicity to finish work at 1:00pm so that she could go to the spa, his treat, and then get home early to prepare for the dinner.

Felicity had been here for half an hour already and there was still no Oliver, not that she was surprised that he was late, being punctual was never a thing for him.

The little pop up mission must have taken longer than they had anticipated because both Roy and Diggle swore that he would be on time to the dinner when they called her at 7:00pm to let her know that there was a little hiccup with plans and that Felicity would have to drive herself to the restaurant. Originally, she was supposed to be picked up in a limo driven by Diggle.

Felicity was finishing off her second glass of wine when she noticed that the waitress and a few of the servers were giving her a sympathetic look thinking that her date had stood her up.

If Oliver said he would be there, then he would be there, however late that might be. She would wait until she got a message telling her to do otherwise. She ordered some salmon tartar as an appetiser to keep her from being too inebriated when Oliver arrived.

"Felicity, Felicity Smoak is that you?"

A deep voice called from behind her. Felicity always sat with her back to the people in the restaurant. Oliver was the alert one and always took the seat that gave him the best view of the restaurant. In hindsight, she should have sat in his seat so she would have seen the trouble that had been staring at her since she arrived at the restaurant.

She turned her head to see who had been calling her name and was greeted with the sight of a tall redhead with a dusting of freckles over his cheeks. Felicity had admired those freckles for most of her high school life.

"Dusty?" Felicity asked in surprise. She hadn't thought of anybody from high school since she left Las Vegas and seeing him here in Starling City was certainly a surprise.

"Yes it's me. I must say you've certainly filled out," Dusty said eyeing her cleavage.

Felicity immediately felt uncomfortable. She had worn that particular black dress for Oliver. The front plunged a bit low and Felicity had worn a push up bra to emphasize her small assets so it gave her some nice cleavage. The dress was tight fitted and stopped two inches above her knee.

What she really liked about the dress was the way it hugged her butt, and she knew Oliver would like it. She had worn this dress for Oliver not for some other man to ogle her. She had also worn her hair down and only the barest of make-up, again, another of his favourites.

"Uh thanks, it's nice to see you too," Felicity responded diplomatically.

She didn't like being rude to people unless their name was Malcolm Merlyn.

"You know I thought it was you when I saw you come in," he said as he sat down in Oliver's chair. "I mean, the hair is different and you certainly don't look like a gothic nerd anymore, which is a good thing by the way, but I still wasn't sure if it actually was you."

Felicity glared at him. In high school he had been her first crush. He was the Captain of the football team and the most popular boy. She had severely embarrassed herself in front of him numerous times. He had slept with all of the cheerleaders and a few of the other popular girls.

Felicity had been an outcast at school.

Not only was she a nerd but because she had been skipped ahead, she was much younger than the rest of her graduating class. It didn't help that she had glasses and always had her head buried in a computer text book. One particular embarrassing moment stood out in her memory where she had commented, in the middle of the cafeteria, about the possible colour of his bed sheets.

"That seat is actually occupied," Felicity informed him calmly. She did not appreciate that he took the seat without asking.

"Really, because I was here on a business dinner and I haven't seen anybody come here in the last half an hour. You know it's ok if he stood you up. Quite frankly he is a fool to leave a woman as gorgeous as you alone," He said his eyes dropping down to her cleavage again.

The waitress appeared assuming that Dusty was her date for the night and stated she was ready to take their orders. Dusty ordered a beer and Felicity decided to order food to go for her and Oliver. Her mood for the night had suddenly disappeared and she rather she shared her meal home with her super sexy boyfriend.

"Food to go?" Dusty questioned wiggling his eyebrows at her suggestively.

"My appetite suddenly disappeared," She replied frostily.

"Oh I'm sure I can come up something to bring it back," He flirted with her.

Felicity wanted to gag. Sure Dusty was handsome and he still had the physique of a football player but his eyes were green and not blue, his hair red and not dirty blonde, his nose slightly bent and not straight, his face clean shaven and no five o'clock shadow.

In a nutshell, unless he was Oliver Queen she was not interested.

"I think my date should be here soon," Felicity said pulling out her phone to check the latest update. A message from Dig said they were headed back to the lair to change and that Oliver would be there in about twenty minutes.

Dusty gave her a doubtful look, "Why don't you forget about your date? The nerd probably got lost in the latest episode of whatever TV show nerds watch these days."

Felicity gave an unladylike snort at the thought of Oliver ever being called a nerd.

Really, the man was the exact opposite of nerd. "You do realise that I am a nerd?" Felicity said to him angrily. It was then it seemed to dawn on him that he had been offending her and he switched tactics. "So are you in touch with anybody from high school?" he asked.

"No," she replied simply. Her high school days were something she would happily forget.

"Oh, pity. I guess you missed out on the bets on which cheerleader got knocked up first?" He commented.

"You bet on that?" Felicity asked horrified.

"Sure did. I had $1,000 on Melina. Turned out I was right, she was 1 month along at the graduation ceremony," he informed her.

She wondered what was it that her teenage self saw in this boy. He was an absolute idiot. Even in spite of his awesome body Felicity found zero attraction to him now. She supposed that was a good thing, it just reinforced how in love with Oliver she was.

"You know, why don't we get out of here," he said as he tried to reach across the table to hold her hand. Felicity promptly withdrew her hand off the table and scooted her chair backwards.

It was then she sensed the deadly aura behind her.

"Excuse me, I think you're in my seat," a voice she had been dying to hear all night said.

She quickly glanced up to see him dressed in a black suit that made her want to purr.

Her eyes greedily took him in and she felt a surge of pride knowing that she was going to be the one he was taking home tonight.

She glanced up at his face and she could tell that he had his Oliver Queen persona firmly in place but she could see the tension in his jaw as he looked at Dusty.

She was happy that she had the foresight to order dinner to go even though she realised with Oliver looking like that, they probably won't going to be eating dinner until after midnight.

"Hey man, you snooze, you lose," Dusty responded casually not even looking up at Oliver.

Oliver was about to move forward and forcibly remove the redhead but Felicity put her hand on his arm. "Oliver, why don't we pay our bill and take our little celebration elsewhere," Felicity said as she stood up giving Oliver a full look at her.

His eyes widened as he took in her appearance and his hand automatically moved to the small of her back to gently tug her closer to him. His gaze travelled to her butt and he swore his pants suddenly became too small for him. He repositioned his girlfriend in front of him.

"Dusty, it was nice catching up but my date and I are going," Felicity said politely but then decided to add, "He's actually the one that will be getting to see my sheets tonight."

The shocked look on the red head faced was enough proof to her that nerds do get their revenge later in life. As she left the restaurant with Oliver and their food, she was sure Dusty would immediately be gossiping to all of his old high school buddies about Felicity Smoak, the new smoking hot Felicity.

"Who was that jerk?" Oliver asked her when they reached her car, a silver BMW.

She tossed him the keys to the car. She had given up the Mini because Oliver was never comfortable in it and he definitely needed more leg room.

"No one important," she replied as she settled herself into the passenger seat.

"I am yours only just as you are mine. We are partners."

"I wouldn't want it any other way!" he said reaching across the car to pull her into his lap.

She was right about dinner. They hadn't eaten dinner until after he had claimed her in her car, the sofa and the kitchen countertop. Dinner may not have turned out the way Oliver wanted it but the time spent after the restaurant was exactly the way they had both envisioned it.

An: Thanks for reading. Part 2 is titled Sunbathing.

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