A/N: And we're back with a whole new chapter!
So, I have to apologize upfront for this one. It kind of got away from me a bit. The actual chapter I wrote is actually double the length of what I'm posting today, but it was so incredibly long that I felt it really needed to be broken up into two chapters. Unfortunately, this means we're not getting to the next text message picture today. I'm SO sorry.
On the upside, that means I have most of the next update done already. Picture included. Plus, you'll have a little more insight into Oliver's current mindset to look forward to next time.
Finally, I just wanted to thank everyone who read the story, followed it, added it to your favorites, and commented. I was blown away by the warm welcome this story received. Seriously - you guys are awesome, and all of the excitement and enthusiasm you gave me just inspired me to write more. I blame all of you for how out-of-hand my writing got this week.
Don't forget! You can check the Pinterest board at /thebookjump1732/picture-perfect to see the photo that inspired the last chapter. Also, you can check my Tumblr to see if I've given another sneak peek for the next chapter like I did for this one. My tumblr blog name is TheBookJumper.
Chapter 2
"Get up. We're going shopping."
Felicity rolled over and groaned lowly. Everything hurt. She supposed that made sense considering all of the dancing in heels she had done the night before. Sure, she was used to wearing heels all day long because it was expected of her as Oliver Queen's Executive Assistant. Blah. She still hated that she was a glorified secretary instead of working her way up the ranks of the IT department, even though she knew it made sense given their nighttime activities. But, she got to buy new clothes and shoes to look the part. Even wearing them all day for work could not prepare her for wearing four-inch heels and dancing all night.
In addition to her body aches, which were many, she felt nauseated and had a major headache which she attributed to all of the alcohol. The Computettes were a dangerous group to be friends with, that's for sure. But she was dangerous, too. Even right now she was contemplating murder. Veronica was standing over her, fully dressed, and using her foot to nudge Felicity in the kidney to wake her up.
"Mmmm. How about no?" Felicity grunted and rotated to her other side so the foot couldn't keep hitting her in the same spot. Veronica laughed and nudged Felicity in the kidney on her other side. Oh, right. People had two of those. Unfortunate.
"Seriously, Lix. Get up. I'm ready, Amy's in the shower right now, and Kara's been up and about for an hour. She left and said she's bringing back bagels. Move your ass, Smoak."
Ah. Her friends were already up. That explained the curious absence of warmth on both of her sides. When they had fallen asleep last night watching Doctor Who, Felicity had been curled in the middle of the floor with Kara at her back and Amy at her front. Both girls tended to run warmer than regular people, and liked to cuddle Felicity who had the exact opposite problem. They always likened it to putting their faces on the cold side of the pillow.
"Plus, you're the whole reason we're going shopping. We need to get you some seriously dirty lingerie so Kara can continue to take naughty pics of you to send to your boss."
Felicity's eyes popped open at that, comically wide. "Oh my God. Please tell me I'm still dreaming. Please tell me I did not send Oliver naked photos of myself last night. Seriously, V. Help me."
"Sorry. That definitely happened. But at least they weren't naked. They were just of your legs in heels. It's fine. I locked up the phone so he'll never be able to trace it back to you. Now. Get. Up."
Wide awake now, Felicity pushed herself from the floor and moved to stand up. Her mind was whirling with all of the implications and what she had let her friends talk her into doing last night. Thank God Veronica had been sober enough to properly encrypt and upgrade that burner phone. Felicity was pretty sure Kara was hammered last night, so there was even a good chance that she dialed the number wrong anyway, and Oliver was none the wiser about the photo. Yes. That was good. Oliver probably didn't even get it. No need to freak out.
Finally upright, Felicity glared at Veronica. "I'll go shopping, but not for stuff to wear in those pictures. Actually, no more naked pictures. My legs were naked in those pictures. Naked. Not to mention the fact that it's sexually harassing my boss. Sexual harassment is bad. I'm a bad girl." Pause. Groan. "Not like a bad girl, bad girl. Just a bad girl. Like naughty." Ugh. "As in, no presents for Christmas, naughty, not like spank me naughty. Feel free to shut me up at any time, V."
"Oh no. That was great. I totally videoed that, by the way. I love the way your mind works, Lix. Now, I heard the shower turn off. Go get ready."
Sighing, Felicity drug her feet into her kitchen and started the coffee maker. She turned to her fridge, extracted a bottle of water, and then grabbed some aspirin from her medicine cabinet. She grabbed four out of the bottle because this felt like it was going to be a double dose of pain killers day. She had been awake for less than ten minutes and was already mortified. Hopefully whatever wrong number they had sent the picture to last night appreciated the view. (Yes, she was sticking to her story about it being a wrong number. It was easier to grasp that than to consider the alternative.) She downed the aspirin then took a few extra gulps of water hoping that the extra hydration would help get rid of her hangover sooner.
With coffee on the way and the water already helping to ease her headache a bit, Felicity padded back to her bedroom to hop in her shower. Stripping off her clothes, she looked herself over in the mirror. The dark circles under her eyes were more prominent than ever, but she knew she could use her moisturizer and concealer to cover those up for the day. Luckily, the bruising on her right ribcage had gone down significantly since the prior weekend when she had missed blocking one of Digg's attacks during their training session. It wasn't his fault. He had lifted his leg to try and faux-kick her just as Oliver had stood behind him and pulled his shirt over his head, effectively distracting Felicity from the fighting. Instead of being a normal human being and maintaining her balance through the distraction, Felicity had leaned in Oliver's direction, losing her balance in the process and landing hard right into John's knee. He had apologized over and over again, but she assured him she was fine. Oliver had tried to get her to let him examine her ribs, but she brushed him off with a promise she'd go home and put ice on it. "It's not like there's anything you can do for bruised ribs anyway, Oliver," she'd reminded him, causing him to back down.
Testing the water and finding it warm enough, she jumped into the shower. She lathered, rinsed, repeated, conditioned, and loofahed away all of the sweat and grime from the bar the night before, and toweled herself off. All without thinking of shirtless Oliver. Mostly.
She finger combed her hair and put some anti-frizz cream in it, opting to let it air dry to cut down on her time to get ready. She drank some more from her water bottle, then headed into her closet to pick out clothes for the day. Because everyone wanted to go shopping, she had to be presentable for the public, but she also desperately wanted to be comfortable. Looking through her clothes, she spied her favorite pair of worn out jeans. Smiling to herself, she pulled those down off the shelf, grabbed a comfy but cute sweater and threw the outfit on her bed. Crossing to her dresser, she pulled out a matching purple with blue polka dots bra and panty set. Throwing everything on, she checked the mirror once more, put on some eyeliner, mascara, and her trademark bright pink lipstick on her face, and she was ready to spend a gorgeous fall day out and about in Starling City. All in under a half an hour. She bet those models couldn't do that.
She entered the living room to find Kara had returned with the bagels and Veronica had poured her a cup of coffee in a to-go cup. With everybody ready, they made their way out of Felicity's apartment and all piled into the red Mini.
When they pulled into the mall parking lot twenty minutes later, Felicity's bagel and coffee were both completely gone. They went from store to store through the mall, trying on clothes, sharing dressing rooms, and modeling potential clothing options to get honest opinions. Felicity tried not to think of how much she missed this. She hadn't really made any new friends since graduating, the real danger of being the smartest person in the room, so she looked forward to these three times a year with everything she had. Sure, she had John and Oliver, but they weren't her friends like these girls were her friends. She tried to picture Digg's face if she would ever drag him to the mall and ask whether the top made her breasts look bigger. Imagining the horrified shock that would come across his face had her almost in tears laughing in her dressing room.
They had hit pretty much every clothing store in the mall and each of the four girls had found at least a few new additions for their wardrobes. They paused outside the food court and Kara announced, "Just one more store, and then I think we're done for the day. We should go check out my studio after this. It's only a ten minute drive from here, I think." Everyone nodded in agreement with this new plan.
"What store do you want to hit, Kara?" Amy questioned, trying to think of any store they hadn't already been in.
"Agent Provocateur, of course," Kara replied flippantly, like it was a silly question. "We have to get some seriously hot lingerie for Lix to wear and send to her gorgeous man hunk of a boss." Felicity would have done a spit-take if she'd had anything to drink.
"No way, Kara. I can't afford anything from that store anyway, and even if I could, I would definitely not be sending any of it to Oliver. Not that I would send the actual lingerie to him. What use would he have for lingerie? I suppose he could send it to some woman he actually finds attractive. I meant the pictures of me in said lingerie. Not that he would send pictures of me in lingerie to other women. Obviously. Which there won't be any of because we're not doing that."
"Felicity Smoak. You are gorgeous and sexy and that man would be insane to not find you attractive." Looking around quickly, Amy zeroed in on a guy wearing a business suit who was exceedingly attractive, and bounded over to him. Felicity, Veronica, and Kara looked on as she animatedly spoke to him and then pointed back towards their group. Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the rest of the girls. "Honest opinion, George. Felicity, meet George. George, Felicity. Would you sleep with her?"
He didn't hesitate. "Absolutely." He leered at her in a way that made her skin crawl.
Amy winced apologetically at Felicity. Then she pasted on a fake, bright smile and looked at George. "Thank you! We appreciate your help. You can go now."
Instead of taking the hint and leaving, George pulled his business card out of his wallet and handed it to Felicity, gently stroking her fingers when she went to take it from him in an effort to get him to leave sooner. Her stomach rolled over, but she quickly hid it behind her own fake smile as she removed the card and her hand from his grip. He coasted his eyes over her body one last time and said, "Call me if you ever need help with anything else." He leaned in quickly, placed his hand on her ass and squeezed roughly. "Seriously, anything." Just as quickly, he let go and walked away.
Meeting Amy's hazel gaze, Felicity narrowed her eyes. "Thanks for that, Ames. It's not a fun Saturday until I get sexually assaulted."
"Well, now that the touchy feely portion of today is over, let's see about getting you into some scandalous lingerie, my dear." Kara tried to diffuse the situation. "Even if we don't send any more pictures to Oliver, I still need a practice model for my gallery show. Please, Felicity? I need to use you to figure out what poses work, what lighting works, backgrounds, everything so I don't have to waste my time when I get to the others."
"Use Amy or Veronica, then. They're so much more comfortable at this stuff than me, Kara. I bet they'd love to do it. And then Amy would have pics to send to potential conquests, so it would be a win-win."
Felicity gave desperate puppy eyes to Amy, pleading silently with the other girl to back her up. But just before Amy relented, Kara rationalized Felicity's pleas away.
"But Amy's only here until tomorrow, Lix. Then she goes back to Cupertino. Veronica heads back to Gotham. And my studio is here, babe. You're the only logical choice. I need someone that I'm comfortable with giving directions to and photographing like that. I really need your help, Lix. Plus, I'm totally buying everything since you're doing me a huge favor."
Felicity caved. Hard. "Fine. I'll be your model. But no more pics to Oliver. At all. Are we clear?"
"Crystal. I'll load them onto an encrypted drive for you and whatever you decide to do with them after is none of my business. Deal?"
Her head tilted down, she took a deep breath, and squared her shoulders. Then she pivoted on her right foot and walked right into the lingerie store.
An hour later, Felicity was certain her face was never going to go back to the pale cream color it used to be. It was going to be lobster red for the rest of her life and then no one would want her, especially not billionaire, vigilante brooders. But they didn't want her now anyways, so she guessed that was okay. She could still hear his voice telling her he couldn't be with someone he could really care about. Could care about. Even if he were talking about her, which she was pretty sure he wasn't, he was explicitly telling her that he did not currently care about her like that. She knew he cared about her in a general sense, somewhere between good friend and little sister. She tried valiantly to quash down the feelings of hurt that remembering his words always sprung in her heart. She was with her friends, she was happy to be there, and she was not going to let this short window of fun be ruined by thoughts of Oliver sleeping with Isabel.
Standing at the checkout counter, Kara paid for four new sets of lingerie for Felicity. Felicity had also found a set that she intended to buy just for herself because when she tried it on, she felt incredibly sexy and confident. It was a deep emerald green number with sheer lace cups in the bra that tied in the back with a satin ribbon rather than the usual hooks, and a matching lacy cheeky panty that made her butt look fantastic. It was actually one of the more demure things she found in the shop, and it was on the clearance rack, but the moment she saw it on, she had to have it. She tried not to think about why that color felt so good to her.
With the Mini full of their new purchases, the girls zipped over to Kara's new gallery and studio. There was appropriate oohing and ahhing over Kara's new space. It really was gorgeous and would be the perfect space to hold an art gallery. It took up the two upper-most levels of a six-story building, which typically would have made it a nuisance for an art gallery exhibit, but the views made up for it. Each level had floor-to-ceiling windows across the perimeter of the space and a stunning view of the city skyline.
The lower floor had dark hardwood floors and exposed brick walls would be perfect for displaying photographs and the layout was open enough that it wouldn't be difficult to navigate, but with enough wall space provided throughout that Kara would easily be able to hang plenty of her prints for a show.
But that level had nothing on the upper floor. The same dark hardwood floors and brick walls existed up there, but Kara had transformed the space into an incredible studio. There were a few benches and ottomans, a couch, and a bed, all on rollers to be easily positioned wherever she wanted. She had amassed a large quantity of blankets and sheets with varying colors and textures that could serve doubly as backdrops, if needed. She even had a large, ornately decorated mirror in the space and a jewelry box with various pieces of costume jewelry to be used as props. Surveying the area, Felicity's eyes glanced upon a set of paints, paintbrushes, and oils. Kara really was prepared for anything.
"Okay, girls. Everybody strip and throw on your favorite pair of lingerie that you bought today. Except you, Felicity. You're putting on the white one." Kara's tone brooked no room for disagreement.
Reminding herself that she had agreed to this and that Kara had offered her complete control over the distribution of the pictures, Felicity steeled herself and began removing her clothes. She blushed crimson head-to-toe as she lifted her sweater over her head, laughing at herself for being silly. It was nothing the girls hadn't seen before. There had been plenty of nakedness over the years. From helping each other get ready for dates, to drunken stripping out of their clubbing clothes at the end of the night, to that one awkward time Amy had walked into the bathroom while Felicity was showering because she "just couldn't wait any longer to pee," and "who cares if the shower door is see-through, it's just me!"
Veronica looked over at Felicity and exclaimed, "Holy shit, Lix! Is that a bruise? What the hell happened to you?"
Crap. She tried to play it off, "Oh, wow. I had no idea it was that big of an area. It must have been the self-defense classes I've been taking." She'd read somewhere that keeping an element of truth to the story made the lie easier. And technically, they were self-defense classes, kind of. One-on-one classes with a trainer. With a very specific goal of not dying. "It's pretty faint though, do you think it will be a problem in the pictures?"
Kara leaned down to inspect it. "Well, it's not great because you're so pale it's pretty visible, but it shouldn't be a problem. You have a really even skin tone, so it will be simple to Photoshop the bruising out of the images. Should be fine."
Nodding at Kara, Felicity pulled the white lingerie set out of the subtle pink bag with the black bow and ran her fingers over the material. It was silky and smooth and she knew how great it felt on. This set was the tamest one that Kara had picked out for her. She imagined Kara wanted to start her with this set because she knew it would ease her into the modeling scene. Because that's what she was now, right? A model. Huh. That was kind of surreal to think about. She guessed it didn't count because she wasn't getting paid for it, just doing a favor for a friend. That was some kind of sense she could live with.
Over the next three hours, Kara snapped photo after photo of each of the women. Carefully positioning them on the bed, on a bench in front of the window, against the exposed brick walls, and even incorporating some of the different blankets and backdrops. Luckily, Amy and Kara had both purchased a pair of high heels during their shopping excursion, which they gladly let the other girls borrow for some of the pictures. They even made use of a few props, too. Kara had pulled out a long strand of pearls and artfully draped them over their bodies during different poses. There was a white garter that made an appearance at one point as well.
The photoshoot ended when Veronica's stomach growled loudly and it was decided that food was a necessity. They piled everything back into the Mini and sped back to Felicity's apartment to drop off their loot before heading out to grab burgers at Big Belly.
Even though they had visited Starling before, the previous trips had never included food from Big Belly, and Felicity was adamant that it was an oversight that must be corrected this time. The four girls found themselves sitting at a large booth laughing and reminiscing on their college days while waiting for their orders to be delivered to their table.
"I swear I thought that purple color would never come off of your tongue. It was like that for three days!"
"Yeah, I think it looked something like this," Felicity stuck her tongue out at her friends and, sure enough, it was purple from the grape slushie she had ordered. Just then, an amused cough sounded next to the table causing Felicity to look up with her tongue still hanging out of her mouth. Alarmed blue met amused blue and she could feel the heat spread as her cheeks flushed bright red. When his mouth twitched at the corner in the half-smile that he typically reserved her for babbling rants or unintentional innuendos, Felicity realized her tongue was still outside of her mouth. The burning embarrassment spread as she hastily pulled it back into its home.
"So your tongue can change colors now? Cute trick." Oliver offered a genuine smile at Felicity and then nodded his hellos to the other women. "Nice to see you lovely ladies again. I hope you enjoyed your time at Verdant last night."
"We definitely did! It was awesome being on the VIP list and not having to pay for drinks all night. Thank you so much for that, by the way!" Amy flipped her red hair over her shoulders as she looked up at Oliver from under her lashes. "OW!"
Kara kicked her under the table. She'd be damned if she allowed Amy to ruin the plan of getting Oliver and Felicity to happen.
Felicity was still focused on the cute trick part of Oliver's greeting. There was that word again. "My tongue can do lots of things, thank you very much. It's very talented." Yeah, that made it better, Felicity, she thought to herself. Cue the ramble. "Not like that. I just meant that it does things other than change colors. Like, lick stuff. That's not any better. I can roll it and make the clover thing with it, too. And it allows me to do what I do best – babble. Which I'm going to stop. Right." Pause. Deep breath. "Now."
Oliver was staring at her. His mouth did the twitch again. Then he lightly shook his head and addressed the whole table. "Mind if we join you? We didn't get much chance to talk last night because the club was so loud, and I'd really like the chance to get to know you all a little better. Any friend of Felicity's is a friend of mine, and all that."
"Absolutely. We've already ordered, though. So decide quickly because if you delay our food from getting here, Veronica might overthrow the kitchen and we do not want that. Lives ruined. Bloodshed. It won't be pretty."
Kara nudged Veronica playfully and threw her arm around her.
Oliver and Digg sat down at the ends of the booth while the girls squeezed closer together to make room. Digg took his place next to Felicity and patted her on the shoulder, trying to calm her down from her tongue-related slip-up, leaving Oliver next to Kara on the other side of the table. With a slight smile at Felicity, Digg introduced himself to the other girls. "I'm this one's –" he indicated Oliver, "bodyguard and driver, and I'm this one's – "putting his arm around Felicity, "friend, when the rest of you aren't available. Being on Oliver's payroll has really brought us closer together. Misery loves company, right?"
Everyone laughed. Everyone except Oliver. Instead, his eyes narrowed at Digg. And if he was looking at Digg's arm around Felicity rather than at Digg's face for the comment he made, no one noticed. Except Digg, who smiled knowingly at his boss.
"Anyway, I was there last night and got to see you all, but unfortunately couldn't get around to meeting you, so I feel privileged to get the chance now. Especially because you can give us all the dirt on this girl as a college student! She doesn't share much of those days."
Kara piped up. "Oh, there are so many good ones. Where should we start, Lix?" She laughed at the glare on her friend's face.
Oliver tilted his head, almost like a puppy, and a soft smile slid across his lips. He looked at Felicity questioningly, "Lix?"
Veronica jumped in with the explanation. "That's her nickname. At first she was Lis, because who wants to say Fe-li-ci-ty all the time." She drew out the name to make her point. "Then one day in the first semester of classes, one of the teachers had a problem with his presentation which wouldn't properly function on his Linux operating system and Felicity jumped up and fixed the whole issue right there in the middle of class. I think it took her a minute tops. From then on, instead of Lis, everyone called her Lix because of her showing up our professor on his own Linux based system. Lix because it's closer to Linux. Get it? It just kind of stuck."
"That was Mr. Garrett's class, right? That guy was a huge prick. He deserved whatever you gave him, Lix."
Veronica beamed at Felicity. "Oh, he got it. Believe me. I think he was Felicity's first black hat hacker project." Oliver and Digg settled their curious eyes on Felicity, waiting for explanation.
"What? He tried to give me a C in that class because of my 'attitude.' All I did was send a few e-mails from his personal account. Nothing horrible."
"Didn't one of those e-mails inform his wife that he had been tested at the clinic and that the results said he had gonorrhea? And another one sent to the Dean of the Department that called him a scruffy-looking nerfherder?"
"Maybe."
Digg snorted. Oliver smiled and shook his head.
"OH! What about the time that Mike told everyone he'd slept with you after you turned him down for the millionth time and you set his computer to play the Peanut Butter Jelly Time video over and over again when he tried to open his final exam presentation. You even programmed his computer so that a hard boot wouldn't work. He had to actually remove the battery from his laptop to get it to stop."
Oliver smirked at Felicity, "Look at you, you little rebel."
Felicity rolled her eyes. "Well, it's not peeing on a cop car.."
There was a chorus of "wait, what?" and "Oliver peed on a cop car?" from her friends and Felicity raised her eyebrows in challenge at Oliver and then nodded at her friends, replying, "Yeah, Oliver had his fair share of scandals himself."
This prompted the story exchange of a lifetime. Oliver would share one of his previous exploits and one of the women would respond with one of theirs. Even Digg contributed a few less-than-stellar moments from his Army days. Throughout the night, Felicity would swear she could feel Oliver's eyes on her, but every time she'd look his way he was looking at someone else. It was starting to unnerve her. She looked up at Digg, hoping he could read the question in her eyes. He just shrugged back at her, having no idea why Oliver was acting that way.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed it! Look for the next update sooner rather than later because it's mostly done. And I promise a picture for next time.
Also, there will be a plot mixing in at some point. So keep an eye out for that.
I loved getting all of the speculations for the last chapter. If you want to send more ideas and predictions, feel free! We'll get to see who's right soon!