So… I'm sort of still in shock at the more than 280 visitors to my first story. Some people from as far as Qatar and Estonia, which is just mind boggling! I got three reviews on the last one and am so honored anyone ever stopped to click. I had this next story in my head too and decided to bang it out and see if anyone liked. This – unlike the first – will be multiple chapters. Not many, but enough to satisfy an Olicty craving!

(FYI: If I owned this story, I would not be reading or writing stories on this website!)


I blame Roy for my foray into online dating. We were both ordering take-out and waiting for Oliver and Diggle to get back from a night of patrolling. Roy had been left behind as punishment after disobeying orders during patrol the night before. He had been livid at first, Oliver ordering him to clean up the Foundry and stay out of my way as I helped him and Diggle with reconnaissance.

At first, I thought Roy would just leave and sulk somewhere for the night. But it was a testament to how much influence Oliver now had over the kid that Roy stayed, cleaned, and approached me quietly a few hours into patrol about food. We had a healthy debate on the benefits of sushi versus lo-mien and in the end my craving for starchy goodness won out. Roy was placing the order with my usual take out place when my dating life made a dramatic and strange turn.

"So I set you up on a date with Keith from Yummy Yummy." Roy said nonchalantly as he dropped into the desk chair next to me.

There was a beat of silence as I continued typing out coordinates on my computer. Diggle was currently trying to break into a warehouse downtown and Oliver was making an impromptu visit to diamond thief a few streets over. I was trying to coordinate a meet up location for both of them to regroup.

"Mhmm. Did you ask for extra soy sauce?" I asked absent-mindedly.

"Yea… and he's throwing in a free Wonton soup too." He replied.

His voice is what made me break concentration. His tone was extra soft, almost fearful. It was the tone usually used when Oliver was yelling or Diggle was lecturing. It always made him sound younger and made me want to walk over and hug him.

I froze and quickly walked back our conversation. Why was he scared? Had I said something mean? I slowly repeated his words in my mind and tried hard to process what they meant.

"What?" I said, swiveling sharply to my left; the first part of the conversation finally registering inside my head.

"He said the Wonton was on the house." He looked uncomfortable in his grey T-shirt. I stared at him confusedly.
"Wait, what was the first part?"

"I set you up on a date." Another beat of silence passed as I stared at him.

"He seemed nice." Roy fiddled with his phone and ignored my stare.

"What do you mean?" I replied slowly. His idea of a practical joke wasn't even remotely funny.

He sighed deeply, "He thought it was you when I called. And when he heard a guy's voice, asked if I was your brother. I said no, and then he asked if I was your boyfriend. I said no and then he asked if you had a boyfriend and I said no. So at that point, it was obvious the guy has a thing for you and I said you were single and probably wouldn't mind a date."

My eyes widened, "you're joking right?" He continued to fiddle with his phone.

I jerked my hands away from the keyboard and yanked his phone away.

"Roy!" I screeched, "You're joking right!?"

"It's not that serious Felicity, it's just a date." His face held a tentative smile as our eyes finally met, but he quickly looked away at my look of outrage.

"Are you out of your mind?!" I stood abruptly and yanked my Bluetooth out of my ear.

"You can't just set me up on a date with the guy from Yummy Yummy! He's the take out delivery guy!" I grimaced and held my hand up. "Not that there is anything wrong with that. But I order food from the man… not" I spluttered looking for a word. "I don't call him asking for dates!" I shouted.

"Roy" I sat back down and grabbed his arm, "you're joking right?" I dug my fingernails into his sweater and held him in place as he tried to use the swivel chair to move away from me.

"Because this isn't a funny joke and yes, maybe I haven't really been dating. And yes, I may spend a ridiculous amount of time in this basement. But I can assure you that I don't need help setting up my dates. I can date; I've been on lots of dates. Sometimes even with guy's who work at restaurants! And yes, right now I haven't been on one in a while because of work and Arrow business, but that's okay. I mean the city needs me… us. I'm on a sabbatical. "

Roy raised his eyebrows and looked at me pointedly. "An Oliver sabbatical?" he said sarcastically.

"Roy!" I screamed, jerking the desk chair with both arms. "You did not just set me up on a date with our take-out guy to help me get over Oliver!"

I pushed his chair back with force and stood over him in anger.

"What is wrong with you?! Tell me this is a joke. Tell me right now!" I glared and hung over him in the chair.

"Hey, calm down," he stuck his hands up, "I called Yummy Yummy and Keith answered and thought it was you. We started talking and he said you always called for food on Saturdays and he knew your usual order already. Then he asked me who I was and we started talking. He said, "Hey is she your girlfriend? I said no. He said –"

"Get to the part where you suddenly decided it was completely okay to set me up on a date with a stranger!" I cut him off angrily and folded my arms across my chest. I suddenly felt the urge to throw something at Roy's head. I finally understood why Oliver liked to mutter "patience" under his breath when he talked to Roy.

"Okay, okay." He stood up and took a few steps away from me. "After he asked about your boyfriend and I said you didn't have one, he asked if you were a lesbian."

"WHAT!" I stared in shock.

"Hey, it's a valid question. A guy has to ask that stuff now. Things could go either way these days."

"ROY!" I screamed.

"OKAY! I said no, I said you were single and were just a workaholic and married to a computer. He said he had been there once, owned his own computer repair company and worked long hours for years. Then he sold it all and bought himself a restaurant with his brother. I said, 'Oh really, that is a big career change.' And he was like yea, but it was worth it. He spends more time with his parents and gets to go out more. He still fixes computers on the side for extra money. He's even thinking of branching out his business into a chain. We talked about his lo mien recipe. I told him I liked the shrimp tempura. He told me he would give me a discount. We talked about the order, he told me his name and that was it."

Roy finished and sheepishly looked down at the floor with his hands in his pockets.

"So the date thing was a joke?" I frowned, confused.

"No… in the middle of that I might have mentioned how you work in computers too."

I felt my face turn crimson. "The whole story Roy, tell the whole story… now." I choked out.

"Um, okay, so I said it was 'funny'… or actually something like, 'it's a small world'." He looked up and grimaced, "you know, two people who like the same things, talk to each other all the time, but don't even know how much in common they have."

I slowly took a deep breath and held back a scream.

"Go on…" I hissed.

"Well, he was like 'it is a small world' and how he was going to say something to you next time you called. And I said, 'why wait, the two of you should just meet one day and go nerd on each other.'" His voice trailed off and I stared back at him in shock.

"Okay, okay, maybe I didn't say go nerd on each other." He took a couple of big steps back and held his hands up defensively.

"I'm sorry, that sounded bad, I know. But it was really a lot more innocent, I swear."

For the first time, in a long time, I was speechless. Roy ran his fingers through his hair in embarrassment.

"Listen, he sounded really nice and excited that you were into computers too. So I said I would set up a blind date. I told him Tuesday's work, since I know that's our slow days down here. He said that was cool and I told him to meet you on Temple Street around 6pm."

"Call him back right now," I pushed the phones into his hands, "and cancel."

"Felicity" he whined.

"Roy, I'm not joking. Call him back, right now. Cancel the date. Cancel our order. Cancel the entire thing this instant!"

I was beyond embarrassed. I was sweating from the heat on my face alone. I could never call for food at Yummy Yummy again. That was probably the worst part. I loved their food. Keith really did have a damn good lo mien.

"Roy, if you ever want me to speak to you again, you will call them back right now and cancel. I'm not saying it again." I held out his cell-phone expectantly in annoyance.

"I don't understand what the big deal is," he said, grabbing the phone off me and walking past me to slump into the desk chair again.

"Keith sounded nice. And you haven't dated anyone in months. You can't stay hung up on Oliver forever."

"I'm not hung up on Oliver!" I shrieked.

"Fine," he rolled his eyes, "you aren't hung up on him. Then there shouldn't be a problem with going out with Keith."

"ROY! Keith is a stranger!"

"Everyone starts off as a stranger." He deadpanned.

I shook my head and angrily jerked my chair back in place to get back to work. I could not deal with this right now. It was suddenly clear to me why he ended up dating Thea. They were both nosy busy bodies who didn't have any clue about personal space.

"Roy, I'm not saying it again." I slipped the Bluetooth back in place and began anxiously calling up the coordinates I had up before this ridiculous conversation even started.

"Start dialing, now." I tried to control my breathing and tapped in to the com link to check in on Oliver.

"Oliver, check in please." I asked distractedly, my mind trying to focus back into the task at hand.

Roy suddenly reached out and grabbed my hand. "Please don't tell him," he whispered.

I softened my angry glare and sighed, nodding in agreement.

Oliver and Roy were having a tough time getting along lately. Oliver still hadn't forgiven Roy for keeping his sister's disappearance a secret. He was riding Roy harder than usual with extra trainings and patrol nights. Roy took it all in stride and never really complained, but I didn't want to add to their issues.

"Fine, but call!" I flashed my eyes down to his cell-phone, "cancel it right now."

"Cancel what?" Oliver smooth voice interrupted us and I jumped slightly.

"Our food, I changed my mind." I rubbed my temples tiredly.

"Why, we aren't eating anymore?" Diggle chimed in and I sighed.

It was late already and I knew they were both hungry. Yummy Yummy was my favorite spot not only for the food, but also because they stayed open late. I could order anything and it would always be in stock and freshly made. My eyes traveled to the right hand corner of my screen and I groaned inwardly. It was already passed midnight. Our local pizza place closed at midnight and everything else even earlier. We were stuck with Yummy Yummy or fast food from a local fried chicken place with questionable cleanliness.

I glanced over at Roy, who still hadn't moved. He was staring at me expectantly having listened in on the call. He had to have known the food situation we were in. It had become an issue of sorts on Saturdays. It was our longest night because no one worked the next day and the criminals of Starling were out in mass too.

I squeezed my eyes shut in disgust and tried to control my breathing.

"What do you guys say about fried chicken?" I asked, ignoring Roy's groan of disgust. I shot him a glare to be quiet.

"My vote goes for sushi, aren't they open late?" Diggle asked.

"Yea, I could use soup. It's cold tonight," Oliver responded.

I held back a scream. The universe was conspiring against me and it was all thanks to Roy.

"I kind of want potato wedges…" I drawled out slowly. Hopefully Oliver would take the bait and cave in to my needs. He tended to let me pick when it came to food.

"Get both Felicity. Send Roy to pick up if necessary. Do you have a location on Duncan?" He was all business all the time over the coms lately. We had been chasing Duncan Heyburn, a professional diamond smuggler for three days now. Oliver was getting antsy and wanted the case closed before the weekend was out.

"I got nothing on Duncan. But you and Diggle can probably meet on the corner of Manchester to re-group" I quickly knocked out security camera's on Manchester as a precaution.

"But really, are you sure you don't want potato wedges? Maybe some buttered biscuits?" I asked hopefully.

Diggle laughed, "You sound like Lyla, Felicity. She's still having random food cravings."

"Diggle, I'm heading to Manchester. Felicity order food or don't. Focus!" Oliver cut in harshly.

I groaned and cut the feed. I couldn't believe what I was about to do. Not even in college, with my roommates did I allow anyone to bully me into a date. But here, for the sake of our stomachs and time, I was about to let Roy and the team bully me into one. I couldn't very well let Roy call and say, 'Sorry, Felicity can't go out with you, but she will accept the food.' For all I knew, Keith would hate me and spit into the food.

I turned to meet Roy's, now amused stare. "I hate you" I mouthed. He burst out laughing.

"Lis, it's just one date. He likes computers, you like computers. He makes good lo mien, your favorite thing to eat is lo mien. I think you should thank me."

"I'm never thanking you. And the chance of this happening again, is never!"

And so that night Oliver feasted on free wanton soup, while the rest of us gorged on noodles. Roy and I refrained from speaking… or rather I refrained from speaking. Roy chatted about the case with Diggle, who eyed me for a long time while I ate. I ignored his stare and hid behind my computers.

It was time I think long and hard about my life choices. I was eating lo mien at nearly 2 o'clock in the morning, hunting down a jewel theif, and stressing over a date with a random stranger from a take-out place. A stranger who knew my favorite foods, credit card information, and my work and home addresses; I cringed at the thought.

"Felicity, you okay?" I looked up from my screen to Diggle hovering over me.

I smiled weakly and nodded, "just tired" I said mid chew. He looked at me oddly and told me to call it a night. But I hardly slept that night or the next. I kept cursing Roy and muttering 'patience' underneath my breath. Oliver, if he ever found out, was going to kill him.