Chloe contemplated the phone in her hands. She wished she'd snapped a picture of the man in his sand-color wranglers and work boots to go with the contact info. A souvenir of a man who'd offered comfort and some kind of friendship without a second thought. Even if they never spoke again—she had no intention of calling him— it felt…good, to know Star City could count on someone like Oliver Queen.

"Hey there, Blondie, did I just see—"

"Hi, Tess."

The redhead passed the threshold and joined her at the dining table. If she noticed Chloe tinkering with her phone, she chose to ignore it. She pointed at the sloshed coffee instead.

"What's with the mess?"

"Oliver is allergic to peanuts. The coffee's hazelnuts' flavored."

"You do know that flavored coffees use artificial stuff, don't you? No real nuts in there."

Chloe barely suppressed a need to groan when she caught sight of Tess' knowing grin. "So I have been told."

Her reply seemed to amuse the redhead even more. Chloe sprang to her feet to grab a washcloth and quickly cleaned up the table, putting both cups in the sink. Tess eyed the corner of the baguette.

"So what's new? Beside you having a billionaire' at your beck and call to haul up your groceries?" Chloe spun on her heels in surprise. Tess shrugged. "What? Harper saw you."

Crap crap and re-crap. Who else had seen her with Oliver? Wreaking havoc on tabloids was well and good but if people around her started to associate the two of them… "Who's Harper?"

"Abercrombie model. Are you all right? You look a little green."

The redhead bent her head to the side, blue-grey eyes fixed on her face. Patient. Ready to listen. Just like Oliver. The truth tingled on the tip of her tongue. Chloe swallowed it back and shook her head. The smile hurt when she forced her lips to stretch into it.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just hungry and probably too much sun. Do you want to stay for diner? I'm thinking Italian."

Tess broke the tip of the baguette to wolf it down. "I thought you'd never ask… You start the cooking while I grab this very nice bottle of California Red I have at home, then I'll proceed to tell you all about my day from Hell at the office. And you can tell me again how you're not hanged up on the gorgeous billionnaire. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Great. I'll be right back."

And so a day that had started miserably turned into a fun afternoon of kitchen chaos, spoons, bowls, meat sauce, cream cheese everywhere and broken dancing. When she had to clean whipped cream from every possible surfaces for the third time because Tess had forgotten—again— to unplug the electrical whisk before setting it aside, Chloe banished her to the other side of the counter with her wine.

"You're cute when you're bossy."

"Is that everybody's go-to line?"

Tess grinned like the Cheshire Cat. "Something you want to share?"

The blonde rolled her eyes, lips clamped firmly shut. Her new friend wriggled her nose. "Oh, come on… On a scale ranging from "I'm playing it hard to get" to "I am jumping his bones the next time I see him", where do you stand?"

Chloe snorted and laughed and almost dropped the pepper grinder in her carbonara. "I'm not answering that."

"Jumping his bones, then. I would too, but he's not my type."

"Looks, Fame and Fortune aren't your type?"

Tess shrugged. "He's picture-perfect, if you see what I mean."

Chloe thought briefly about those dark eyes that could comfort and teased, that seemed to see everything and still held secrets of their own. "I think there's more to him than just the image he displayed in the media."

"And you, my dear, have a crush."

As if on cue, her phone chirped. Chloe pointed to the pasta. "Can you set the table? Diner's almost ready."

A patchwork of pinks, soft blues, lavenders and incredible shades of orange painted a sunset on her screen. 'Wish you could see the view from up here. O.'

Darn. She vowed to herself not to contact him. She'd just never considered he might contact her. What was she supposed to reply? Was he flirting with her? She'd never been good at those things. High School was… well high school. Awkward and teenage drama and the mandatory unrequited feelings for her best friend. In Germany, everything was too fresh, too raw, so she'd dive into her studies and blocked out everything else. The novelty of the mysterious foreigner had faded quickly enough when she'd ignored hints and pickup lines and simply isolated herself from fellow students.

"The incredulous smile on your face tells all. What does Romeo want?"

Tess peered at her phone over the table. "Aw… The guy has moves, I give him that."

She all but yanked the phone from Chloe's loose fingers, typed a reply and handed it back before the other woman could react. "Tess, no! What are you doing?"

"Helping you encouraging him."

"What if I don't want to encourage him?"

The knowing look she got in response said "Ugh" loud and clear. It made Chloe fight for the phone even hard. "Give me that!" 'The view' just as good here.' "Tess!"

Chloe flushed a red so deep she matched with their tomato salad. "Gosh, he's never going to let me live that one down!"

The answer took two seconds to chime in, and two words. 'Prove it.'

"You baited him on purpose." Chloe grumbled.

"I absolutely did."

She was almost tempted to snap a picture of Tess to send to Oliver. Another bait, if she was honest. Tess was everything Oliver seemed to like in a woman. Tall. Gorgeous. Brilliant. Uncomplicated. Not socially inept. How would he react to the picture of the redhead? Or of a picture of the two of them together?

"Fine. Put your wine glass near the pasta bowl."

Coward she told herself. What does it matter what Oliver think or like?

Tess obeyed, obviously pleased with herself. Chloe snapped the picture she wanted, added some glittery effects to it and pressed send before she could change her mind. Then she put the phone on silence and put it away. "Now let's eat. You promised a tale of Hell, I want to hear it."

"All right, I'll start with a little background first. What do you know of the upcoming election?"

Chloe shook her head. "Nothing much. I know the city council is split. The mayor took some controversial decisions regarding land acquisition, and there were rumors of bribes."

"Well, most of the lands the mayor opened for development are located on the beachfront, like the couple of acres next door. Somehow, Councilman Gordon Byers managed to rope the Institute in assessing the entire coast line environmental value. We're talking kilometers of shore, here. And my idiotic boss dumped everything on my desk, because I quote "Tess Mercer is the best project manager we have here at the Institute"."

Chloe took a bite of her pasta, savoring the taste before she asked, "That's nice."

"Nice? That's not nice. That's a freaking trap. I am a marine biologist. My job—" she pointed at Chloe with her fork. "My job is to deal with sea mammals, fishes, algae, water chemistry and tides. But no, instead of having a nice swim with sea otters, they are just adorable by the way, I am spending my days in useless meetings with useless people who only care about advancing their careers, who want to save the planet one shell at a time, or are reporting to that creep of Byers. The way he looks at me sometimes… It makes my skin crawl."

"Ouch. So what happened today?"

Her plate empty, Tess lied back in her chair, sipping her wine. Chloe imitated her posture with one foot on the seat so she could hug her knee. "Well today starts like every other day since they dropped that bomb on my lap, with a team meeting so I know where we're at and I can make sure everybody stays on track. And then that… salopri of liaison the Council pushed down my throat interrupted me. She claimed she kept quiet for my sake, but I don't the right layout of the projet. Or the right échéancier. She confirmed her information with Councilman Byers himself. Right, we all know what that mean, inane little kochon only good to do her nails and spread her—"

In anger, her Acadian roots punctuated her speech with Creole. Tess took a healthy mouthful of wine, and continued more calmly. "Everybody is looking at me, or whispering between themselves and she stands here sprouting nonsense after nonsense about boundary limits, scopes and timelines with that smirk on her face…"

"What did you do?"

"I told her as calmly as I could to seat down. Then I ordered everybody out of the room. I swear, they never got back to work so fast. Then I told little Miss Perfect to grab her things and get the hell out of the Institute before I removed her myself."

Chloe nodded in approval. "How long did it take until your boss came to yell?"

"One hour?" Tess chuckled. "I love my job and I am good at it. And I told him so. I also told him that if he wasn't happy with the way I was leading this project, he could take it all back, I would be perfectly happy dealing with my otters, thank you very much. He didn't like that. He didn't like it one bit."

"He didn't fire you, did he?" Chloe asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

"No, he can't. Well, he can file a complaint and try, but the board won't follow. They need me. I'm their only certified biologist. Without my name on the bottom, half their grants are gone. God, I hate Politics…"

Chloe listened as Tess continued to rant. In a corner of her mind, she started outlining her next article…