Disclaimer: I own nothing I swear. It's too much responsibility. I just like to write fanfic.
Oliver's found a diner just outside QC. He'd been in and out of the skyscraper multiple times, but he'd barely noticed the small 24 hour diner across the road.
He likes to visit now. She's made it a nostalgic experience for him. He doesn't know if its the waitress' mothering or the cook's yelling or the filling burgers, but something takes him back and he can almost see her walking through the bell-less door. It's why his eyes never leave the entrance way. Even though he knows she's not likely to walk through it.
Fay, the managing waitress gets to know him, the young man in the business suit with the weary look on his face. She does her best to try cheer him up, she is starting to call his order, 'Oliver's usual' or 'Ollie's bringing home the bacon' depending on whether he's dining in or taking away. He only ever dines in alone, using the time sit down and think through his stuff. In a way it is almost like he's talking to her.
He's protective of his diner bubble. He'll go out of his way to take separate lunch breaks from his father. Instead Robert Queen will be hand delivered, still warm, fine dining restaurant food. Simultaneously Oliver is actively guarding his secret diner with restaurant misdirection, as well as getting Robert's hard earned nod of acknowledgement for his seemingly spontaneous efforts.
Laurel on the other hand is becoming an increasing threat to his haven.
She took Oliver, "Ollie" her high school sweetheart, back because she thought he was growing. No longer jumping from school to school in tank tops and polo shirts. Now Oliver wore shirts and stiff suits while shadowing his father at Queen Consolidated.
Sometimes, if Oliver missed a visit to the diner and couldn't help himself, he'd order Fay's secret dressing chicken salad and a burger meal. Before visiting Laurel for the night, effectively shutting down any chances of a date night at the diner.
More and more recently she'd gone from hinting for Oliver to take her to his well kept secret, to flat out asking where it was so she could try it out fresh. He was running out of excuses. He couldn't exactly tell her that he'd feel like he was betraying the girl he met only twice, if Laurel sat opposite him in that booth. The seat where she used to sit. A place still reserved for the memory of another woman.
Never mind that Laurel is actually his girlfriend.
A few weeks after being back in Starling, attempting to apply himself to being Robert Queen's shadow, Oliver begins to see her everywhere. He's probably hallucinating. Felicity can't be here.
Yet he thought he saw her smile from across the bustling lobby.
No. She's started her future in some company. She's flying her way up the ranks, impressively. He's sure of it. Felicity would have at least one record breaking "youngest ever to-" attached to her name.
He see's her again. Well... He thinks he does. Behind the wall of suits and drab colours, he could've sworn he saw the top of her blonde head. But it ducks out of view behind some stuffy executive shoulder just as he looks back the second time of his double take.
Not her, he reminds himself.
Except it is. It's so fitting.
Two weeks into his hallucinations he's sitting in the diner. Coffee black as night in front of him accompanying a plate of chocolate pancakes. Comfort food. He's broken it off with Laurel. It's not right, its not fair to Laurel. He's seeing another woman everywhere and he needs time to let the hallucination go.
Except the hallucination of her has just walked out of the QC revolving doors. He can see her through the diner window.
Don't question his judgement. It's her. He knows it. She staring straight at the diner, he can see it in her face, she's thinking about coming in. He doesn't want her to.
Not yet.
He's a man with a plan.
Oliver asks for the weekend off. Robert's never seen him so focused in any board meeting before this week. The whole week he's always at attention. Constantly alert to his surroundings. The amount of times Oliver's even stayed back to drill through overtime with him, is a shock. Robert gives Oliver the weekend.
I***I
Oliver sits in the diner across from QC for a week and a half at the end of every day, after his essential road trip. His plan was complete saved for a final crucial step. Then it happens, he hears the newly set up slightly rusty bell tinkles once, then again and again. Three times, as if someone is swinging the diner door deliberately to hear the sound. Then it stops.
When the ringing ends, he looks up from his seat in the booth. She's there, her blue eyes staring up in wonder, she's knows the sound, so does he. It's a familiar welcome. Definitely not a hallucination, though she may think she is, she stops and turns to look around the diner. Her face opens blooming into his favourite smile, that he'd only imagined she'd give him, so many times. It tells him that she's recognised him instantly.
He had fueled up the private jet that weekend. He went back to the diner, where he met her. When the young man Renee knew, showed up in his jeans and t-shirt, she gave him a smile and fulfilled his request. She unhooked the hanging bell from the door and gave it to him, it rang with her good luck.
Seeing a dazzling and beautiful smile, he knows he's responsible for, that is just as bright as the sound of the jingling bell tells him that all his planning and waiting was completely worth it.
And a Third too. The last one mind.
In my head, the bell was left in the diner, maybe it would signal someone else's soul mate had walked through the door.