Surreal But Real
The Wednesday that changes everything starts normal enough. She wakes up, gives Barry fashion advice for his date with Iris, picks up her coffee from the coffee shop next door, opens up the store and starts helping the occasional customer. She is grateful that the store is in a hidden corner of Starling City, away from the crowds and attracts less customers unlike other stores of the Tech Village chain.
By 11:30, the business is dead. She hides behind her laptop, checks up on her blog, goes through her favorite websites, composes two long, personal emails to her friends from college. She tucks her pen in her hair, chews her gum loudly, gets up and walks around the empty store to stretch her legs.
She decides to go to the back room for a second when she hears the bell chime. She pops her head out to see a tall guy wearing a baseball hat with sunglasses walk in. She decides to watch the guy from the cameras instead of bothering to go in and wait as he browses for the new smart phone and leave. She is used to customers just browsing and not buying. She is running low on her coffee and her patience is running low as well, so she stays in the back room to avoid interaction even though the 'S.W.E.E.T.' poster on the wall asks that she should smile, welcome, keep eye-contact, be energetic and thank the customer in the end.
The doorbell chimes again and from the screens, she sees a familiar red hoodie. That sight is more than enough to bring her out from her hidden spot. She sees the guy in the baseball cap who is taller than she anticipated and smiles at him then walks over to the red hoodie guy. "Excuse me, are you going to pay for that?" she asks noticing the bulge under his hoodie.
The guy looks at her, his expression unchanging. "What are you talking about?" he questions.
"That memory disk?" She points to his nether regions. "The one you just put in your pants?" she asks. He just shakes his head questioningly. "Don't make me get in your pants." she reacts, then rephrases. "I mean, don't make me call the police. I do have friends in the police force, wouldn't want you to go to jail for something worth twenty bucks."
That seems to capture his attention. "What if I did have a memory disk in my pants?"
"Ideally, when I go back to my desk, you'd remove the said memory disk from where it is now and place it back to where it was and we can forget about this whole ordeal as long as you promise never to come back here." she says with a smile, pushing her glasses on the bridge of her nose. "I'll leave you to it." she adds and walks to the customer in the baseball hat. "Anything I can help you with?"
"It's fine, I was gonna steal one of the memory disks, but changed my mind." he teases with a smile and she starts laughing. "I just need a new pack of batteries."
The guy in the red hoodie comes to the register and stops next to the baseball hat guy. "Excuse me, can we take a selfie?" he asks, which surprises her. She watches as the whole incident unfolds.
"Sure." he nods. "Just make sure you didn't steal the phone."
"Oh, no man." he protests and brings out a flip phone. He moves in closer to the baseball hat guy and takes the photo. Then he looks at the screen and sees the expression the baseball hat guy gave. "Couldn't you just smile?" he asks, which she thinks is quite rude.
"They don't allow people to smile when taking mug shots, I thought this would be a reminder for you." he answers in a serious tone.
"Good one." the guy in the red hoodie smiles. He nods at both of them, gives an awkward goodbye gesture and leaves.
She looks at the baseball hat guy who is still at the same spot before her. "Sorry about that." she apologizes even though she isn't entirely sure why she is apologizing. "This wasn't the first time this happened." she adds.
"You need more staff and maybe a security guard here." he comments with a grin. "I'll just take this one." He grabs a pack of batteries from the stand next to the register and hands it to her.
"Alright." she says and scans the barcode. "Everybody needs batteries. God knows how many batteries I drain myself doing stuff." she adds, then pauses, catching up on just what she said. "I mean I use batteries for normal stuff like remote controls and wireless mice. I don't use them for my vibrator, no." She flushes. "And I can't believe I just mentioned my vibrator out loud in public. I'm so sorry." She throws the pack into a bag. "It's $8.26. The bag is on the house."
Without any change in his expression, he takes out his wallet and hands her his credit card. The transaction is done in seconds. She hands him the credit card back, gives the receipt for him to sign. He signs it diligently, leaves the pen right next to her hand and with a smile, he grabs the bag and is gone in seconds, leaving her speechless and still flushed, looking at the door he walks out through.
Recognition kicks in. It hits her suddenly, the grandeur and the surreality of what just happened. She walks to the door and looks outside, then places her head between her hands. At that exact moment, the bell chimes again and John Diggle walks in.
"Here you go, one cappuccino." he hands her a small paper cup that burns her hand momentarily because he always forgets the coffee sleeves. "Decided you might need the extra caffeine today."
"My hero." she says. "I don't think you'd believe who just came in." she comments.
"Who? Was it someone famous?" Diggle asks rather chipper, which surprises her.
"Nope." she lies, disregarding the event mostly because she is still unsure whether the whole thing really happened.
"It would be great if someone famous came to the store, though. We need the publicity, they're gonna close down this place if we don't make some revenue." he says as he walks to the register, leaving her at the door.
She is done with the small drink in less than a minute. "Do you want another one? I can go grab one?" she shouts out to Diggle.
"You know what, I actually want some diet coke." he answers. She goes to the register to grab her purse from the locked cabinet underneath and leaves the store to the capable and strong hands of Diggle.
She walks down the empty street to go to the 7/11 around the block instead of the coffee shop next door to take advantage of the warm weather and regrets it in a few minutes as the sun burns through her dark blue polo shirt.
She waits in line at the register while a couple plays the lottery, appreciating the cold feeling she gets from the soda cans on her skin. She smiles at the cashier as she hands him the money. She gets out and decides she can't last any longer in the heat and opens up her can, gulping it down hungrily.
She hears a horn and turns to look where the noise is coming from while she is turning the corner and then runs into something. She feels the cold soda searing into her shirt and realizes that she actually ran into someone. Someone very solid and tall. She looks up and sees Oliver Queen looking down at her with an angry face.
"Oh shit, I'm so sorry." she gasps, moving away from him. She looks at him and sees the white shirt he is wearing under his black leather jacket soaked up with her coke, turning into a dark color, the shirt sticking to his body, revealing some abs she can't help but notice. "I'm so sorry, let me help you."
"It's okay." he says but she can detect the tone of annoyance in his voice. He moves his hands up and down his torso but ruins the shirt for the worse.
"My car is around the corner and I have a spare shirt at the back. Don't ask me why I have spare men's shirt in my car, I just do. You can change into that." she offers quickly while he continues to ignore her.
"Don't worry, I just need to get to my car."
"I also have a phone." she adds. "And internet. We can get you back on the street in less than five minutes. In a non-prostitute way, obviously." She flushes and forgets about her own ruined shirt that is now sticking to her body.
That garners a smile from him. "What do you mean your car is around the corner? Tell me in yards."
"Um." she stops to think. "10 yards, I think? See that red car over there?" she points to the car across the street from the store. "That's mine."
He pauses for a second then seems to agree and follows her quietly to the car, jaywalking across the street. She unlocks the door from afar and rushes to open the trunk and takes out the gym bag hidden amongst the crap she keeps in her car. She rummages through the items, goes through motherboards and spare keyboards and numerous mismatched socks and locates what she is looking for just when he comes and stands next to her. She can't help but notice how big he is in comparison to the car and how he towers over her.
"Here you go." she hands the shirt. "It belongs to my boss, I'm sure it'll fit, might even run big. And no, I don't have my boss's shirt in my car because I sleep with him, he just left in the office one day and I forgot to return it." She pauses. "You really didn't need to hear that."
He hands her the bag she gave him earlier that holds the batteries and takes off his jacket, places it on top of the car. He takes off his hat and sunglasses and places them on the car, too. Before she can even realize what he is about to do, he lifts his shirt and takes it off, uses it to clean the coke that seared through. For a second, she can't help but look away from his naked torso and uses the opportunity to ogle at his abs.
"I have some water, too." she suddenly thinks and hands him a bottle when she realizes that the coke has dried and is sticky on his skin. She tries to look away and finally does, focusing on the gym bag with the useless crap. He hands her the ruined shirt and she takes it, noticing that he is still shirtless. She bites her bottom lip and starts playing with her ponytail, then she realizes that she is subconsciously trying to flirt with Oliver Queen so she stops it all together.
After the longest minute of her life, he finally puts on the shirt that is indeed too big on him and wear his jacket on top of it. He looks ridiculous with the large shirt but without the glasses and the hat and up and close and personal, she thinks he is the best looking specimen of a men she has ever seen.
"Thanks." he responds and she realizes that she said the last part out loud.
"Would you like some coke?" she asks out of courtesy, then she recognizes the irony of the situation.
"No." he responds.
"Do you want to call your driver?" she asks.
"No."
She smiles. "Do you say no to every question?"
He gives her a quizzical look. "No." he responds with a grin. "I'd better get going."
"Yeah, sure." she says, closing the trunk. "Can I take this chance to tell you that I really liked you in that movie, The Gambit, even though every critic hated it? I really appreciated your effort and I think it's your most underrated role." she quickly comments. "This will be my only chance to ever tell you this. Not that you need my opinion on your roles. I just wanted you to know it. Nobody will ever believe that this happened, so I'll remember this by making sure you know how I feel about that movie."
"Thanks." he smiles and nods. She thinks it's a genuine one. He takes out his phone.
"So, it was nice to meet you." she sighs, runs a hand through her hair. "Surreal, but nice."
He doesn't respond but just looks at her with the same smile. He brings his phone to his ear, gives her a final nod and walks away. She is left with a ruined shirt, one and a half cans of soda and the realization that she said the cheesiest thing ever to a huge movie star. She sighs and leans on the car. "Surreal but nice? What was I thinking?" she thinks out loud, chastising herself, pursing her lips.
She locks her car and is about to take a step when she senses someone next to her. She looks up and sees him again. "Hi." he smiles.
"Hi."
"I forgot my bag." he says.
"Oh, right." she says and looks at her hand. She completely forgot about the bag that is indeed in her hands. "Sorry about that." she says and lifts it. She hands it to him and their eyes meet. Then the thing she expects the least happens.
Oliver Queen places his both hands on the sides of her face, leans down and kisses her. His lips are soft upon hers and his stubble tickles her skin. She feels her cheeks heat against his hands and quickly responds to the kiss with fervor, her eyes closed tightly, afraid that when she opens them, she will realize it's all a dream. Their noses bump lightly.
She feels him move away from her and not wanting to break the contact, she moves her lips forward. For a second their lips remain in contact and their mouths slightly apart and she feels like they breathe each other. Then he pulls away and she opens her eyes. He still stands before her, his eyes shining, a genuine smile on his face.
She is confused, not because he kissed her but because he came back after her stupid comment even though it is to pick up his batteries when she knows he could go and buy a battery factory instead. "I'm very sorry…" she says and for a second he looks disappointed. "For the surreal but nice comment disaster." she adds.
"That's okay." he answers. "I thought the vibrator mention was the low point." he continues teasingly.
She laughs. Then from the corner of her eye, she sees Diggle coming out of the store and see her across the street. "I'm sorry, my manager. I'd better get going."
"Alright." he says. "Probably best not to tell anyone about this." he whispers.
"Of course. I'll tell myself, sometimes." she says.
"Goodbye, Felicity." he whispers her name softly and she realizes she was wearing her name tag all along. He smiles then puts on his cap and glasses, walks away and disappears around the corner. She unlocks her car to find her spare work shirt and goes back to work.
A/N: I don't know where this came from but I was in the shower when a quote from Notting Hill popped into my mind and suddenly I reversed the roles to Oliver and Felicity and three hours later, boom.
I am not sure if I will continue this. Please comment if you like it!
It's not beta'd.
I don't own Arrow or Notting Hill.