I hope you enjoy this. One more chapter to go after this one. Thanks for reading and reviewing.

Christmas Party, Part 2

(Penthouse Suite, 8:05 p.m.)

"Can I take your sweater for you?" Damon politely asked me as he held a hand out.

"Sure. It's really warm in here, isn't it?"

"Well, you certainly heat the place up, that's for sure."

"You're full of compliments, aren't you?"

"When it comes to you, Felicity, there can never really be enough," he winked as he turned to walk away.

"Oh, while I'm taking care of this, can I bring you a drink back?"

"Yes, I'd love one."

"What would you like?"

"A glass of white wine, please."

"Sure thing. Don't go anywhere."

The last time I had white wine, Oliver had brought it to me at the lair the night of my mugging and my canceled date with Jax or who I believed to be Jax. How the hell did I end up here? I've got a date I didn't ask for and Oliver is somewhere in this room with that floozy who didn't deserve him.

"Hey."

The soothing unexpected tone of Oliver's voice interrupted my wandering thoughts and involuntarily made me jump where I stood. Then the tender brush of his hand down my bare arm was enough to settle my nerves by instantly sending an electric charge right through me.

"Hey," I smiled as I spun around and saw the face I always long to see.

"I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay. I just didn't see you there."

"I just wanted to come over here and tell you…I had to tell you…you look absolutely stunning tonight."

"Thank you. So do you. I mean, not that you look stunning, of course. You look very…you look very handsome, I mean."

Don't ramble, not now.

We both casually looked away from each other and glanced across the crowded room at the dance floor not knowing what else to say or possibly not wanting to say what we were really thinking; that is, until Oliver decided to say what was on his mind.

"So I thought you were coming to the party with Stefan."

"Oh, yeah, he couldn't make it - some work thing."

"So his bad boy brother just happened to be here to swoop in, huh?"

"He's not so bad. But as a matter of fact, he –"

"I'm sorry. That's none of my business, Felicity."

"Especially when you showed up with Isabel. I thought you said were coming alone."

"Wait, no, you've got that all –"

"Here's your wine, sweetheart." Damon cut right in front of Oliver blocking him from me.

"Thank you."

"Oh, am I interrupting something here?" Damon turned to look at a stone-faced Oliver.

They both gave each other the sizing-up-manly-stare thing, making things even more unpleasant for me.

"Damon, you know Mr. Queen, right?"

"Of course, Mr. CEO. How are you doing, sir?"

They shook hands like adults as I stood by uncomfortably.

"You don't have to call me, sir, Damian."

"It's Damon, two syllables."

"My apologies, Damon Two Syllables."

"Hmm, you're pretty funny, Mr. Queen. And to think everyone says you're uptight."

"Is that right?"

Oh, Lord, the testosterone is flying.

(Dance music starts playing.)

"Come on, Felicity, let's dance," Damon grabbed my hand and whisked me off toward the dance floor.

Oh, God, he's probably good at this too.

Damon stopped mid step, let go of my hand he was clutching, and walked the few steps back to Oliver. "Queen, do you mind holding my drink? Thanks, man."

Before I could say no, Damon had practically swept me up onto the dance floor. There he was dancing to the music and not sucking at it. No surprise there. But judging by the bitch stares, there were some really jealous girls around me who weren't happy I was his date. I would quickly offer him up to them if I could just figure out a way to get out of here. I couldn't just stand there feeling stupid while I was thinking of a getaway, so I started to dance.

"It looks like you have a fan club," I yelled in his ear over the music.

"Well, I only have eyes for you tonight, Felicity."

He wasn't gonna make this easy on me, was he?

"Hey, Oliver, I called in that info that you wanted ASAP. What was so important you needed it tonight?"

"Thanks, Dig. Let's hear it."

"Damon Salvatore, 27 years old. He doesn't have any arrests as an adult, just a few minor traffic infractions. He got into some minor trouble as a juvenile: underage drinking, trespassing, and joy riding. But since then his record has been spotless. He was voted most likely to succeed and best looking at his high school all four years. He got his Master of Science in Risk Management from Columbia Business School, graduated first in his class. His father owns a chain of exclusive hotels. His mother is a District Attorney. He's been head of the Risk Management Department with Queen Consolidated for almost three years. He has one younger brother, Stefan, age 25, who also works with the company in the Accounting Department."

"That's all there is?"

"That's it. Who is this guy anyway? Is he stealing from the company or something?"

Oliver looked out into the crowd as Diggle followed his lead. Diggle immediately spotted Felicity on the dance floor."

"Wait. Are you telling me the guy dancing with Felicity is this Damon guy?"

"I needed to make sure he was good enough for her."

"So that's what he's stealing from you, I get why you're so upset."

"It's not about that, Dig. She's just too important to me to risk -"

"What the hell are you doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why don't you just go about this the way I would."

"And what would that be?"

"Why don't you go out there and ask her to dance, man."

"That's not what this is about. Besides, she's on a date with someone."

"And that's gonna stop you why?" Dig shook his head in disbelief. "You two are so oblivious."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means if one of you don't speak up about how you feel, your lives are just gonna go on without you ever knowing what that life could have been like if you'd just said something."

Oliver rubs his hand on the back of his neck contemplating his next move.

"Am I the only one that notices, Oliver?"

"Notices what?"

"The way you two look at each other. I see it every time you're in the same room together. I see it now. You two are the only ones that don't see it. Wake up, man. Do you want to be with her or not?"

"We shouldn't even be talking about this right now."

"Well, someone has to get through to you. It's a yes or no question: Do…you…want…to…be…with…her?"

(Oliver took a long deep breath and then threw his head down.)

"I don't know what it's like to not want to be with her."

"Then do something about it, damn it, or you're going to lose her."

"I tried to tell her."

"Well, try harder."

"But the more I thought about it, I knew it was probably for the best she didn't hear it. If I was lucky enough to have someone like her, we wouldn't be able to show the world, at least not now. If I was with her, she'd have every bit of me because that's how strongly I feel about her. I wouldn't – I couldn't give her any less than that. But that kind of information out there in the open for my enemies to see is like a bullseye on her back every day and it would paralyze me physically and mentally if they were to hurt her to get to me. I can't allow that. If I told her how I felt, we'd have to hide our relationship. Is that fair to her?"

"Oliver, you already live a secret life. We're just talking about living a secret life with the woman you love in it."

"I don't know if it's that simple."

"Do you really want simple? You two being together will be an entangled web and complex as hell given the lives we lead and how much time you spend together already, but all that angsty confusion and never-ending tension you two got going on is just a clever disguise for what's really happening. You can't stop it. Look at you. I can see how you feel about her a mile away. That pained look isn't going away, man. Don't you think your enemies will catch onto that same thing? It's written all over your face every time she walks into a room."

"It's killing me, Dig."

"I know it is, and believe me, it's starting to kill me too. Take charge. This is your life. You're in love with her, Oliver. If you have to keep it between yourselves, so be it. Felicity will understand. That might even be a good idea for now. The only other alternative is to let her go completely and never see her again."

"I can't let her go. I need her too much."

"Then be with her, love her, protect her from within. Felicity is a big girl. If she feels about you the way I know she does, she'll make her own decision about this. But, in the meantime, are you just going to let her slip away so this guy can swoop in and take her from you?"

"Why does everything have to be so complicated?"

"Every good love story needs complications or what's the point of the 'story' part?"

"What do you mean?"

"Complications are just a series of tests, Oliver. It's all about passing those tests to win the heart of the one you love. Love is a beautiful thing but it doesn't happen overnight. It happens a little each day as you slowly begin to truly know someone. No matter what they tell you, love isn't a walk in the park. I know that from personal experience. It's challenging and eye-opening and frustrating at times and it's digging in so deep into someone's beating heart that you find yourself realizing you belong there and nowhere else. Sometimes it takes years for it to unfold. And that's the story in all of this, and, if you ask me, the journey to that love is the best part of it."

"When did you become such a romantic?"

"All my life, man, all my life."

Oliver raised his hand to shake Dig's. "Thank you, partner. You've always got my back."

"And always will. Look, you and Felicity have passed every test, so are you just going to stand there and fail the final one or are you going to go out there and solidify this love story for both of our sakes?"

(Dance Floor)

"You're a really good dancer, Damon."

"So I've been told."

His ego might have bothered me except he seems to have all the goods to back it up. Problem is, nothing he is doing is working on me.

(Slow music begins to play.)

Oh, great, just like every bad cliché in a movie, the slow song has to play right now, doesn't it?

Damon swayed toward me as I tried to hide my eye-roll of frustration, not with him but my innate ability to find myself in very unique unwanted situations.

Then, as if the Lord himself was answering my pleas of desperation, I suddenly felt a soft tap on my left shoulder.

"Excuse me." I turned my head to see Oliver standing there.

"Do you mind if I cut in?"

No, please cut in.

"You go right ahead, Mr. Queen. I need to get a drink anyway," Damon said as he leaned in and kissed my cheek unexpectedly while looking right at Oliver.

"I'll be right back, baby," he whispered in my ear and then walked off.

"Hey," I suddenly was very nervous.

"Hey again," he repeated as he walked up to me and took me in his arms, holding one of my hands in his and placing the other on my waist.

I melted right into him immediately.

"He likes you."

"What?"

"Damon, he likes you. I can tell."

"No, he's just a smooth talker. It's nothing, I'm sure."

"It's something. And he'd be crazy not to."

"So where's Isabel? She's probably looking for you right now." I blurted out trying to change the Damon subject.

"I have no idea."

"Well, she might have a thing or two to say about you dancing with me, you know."

"Let her. I don't care."

"You have a strange way of showing that, Oliver. You did come here with her."

"Felicity, I was trying to tell you before you were pulled away that I didn't come with her. She tracked me down in the parking lot and followed me in."

"You didn't come with her?"

"Of course I didn't."

"Why didn't you say anything outside, Oliver?"

"Well, you were standing there with your date, your very unexpected date, I might add. I didn't think it would matter to you."

"Of course it matters. I wanted to come here with you, not Stefan or Da—"

I hesitated realizing what I had just said. Oh, God, I just blurted that out, didn't I?

He suddenly placed his right hand delicately on my cheek. "That's good to know...really good to know...because I wanted to come here with you too."

With that said, I felt the room spinning around me and my heart pounding out of my chest.

"You did?"

"That's what I was going to ask you in the office earlier before we got rudely interrupted."

"Oh, God, you were?"

"Why do you act so surprised?"

Oliver grabbed my waist tighter and pulled me closer to him and then leaned into me and whispered so tenderly in my ear.

"Don't you know you are all I think about, Felicity? When you're not with me, I want you with me."

"Oliver..."

"Can you tell me you don't want to be with me as much as I want to be with you?" He held me with more authority and my body wasn't rejecting it.

"I can't," I said breathlessly.

"Why not?" His soft, sensual whisper was beginning to affect my senses.

"Because I'm…I'm speechless."

"Felicity Smoak is speechless?"

I nodded my head up against his chest that my head had so comfortably fallen into. There I was just letting his beautiful words sink in while I was falling in love with him all over again dancing in his arms.

"Do you know how long I've waited to hear you say that? I was beginning to think I was alone in my thoughts."

"I'm sorry it took me so long."

"Me too."

We smiled then laughed at my very honest, but blunt comment. It seemed we were realizing we had been honest about everything it seemed but our growing feelings for the other.

"Can we get out of here?" he said out of the blue.

I thought you'd never ask.

"I'd love to get out of here."

"Can you meet me in the front lobby in five minutes?"

"Sure."

"I need to talk to you about us away from everyone. There are certain things that we have to discuss before we go any further with this. We have to keep things between us until –"

"Hey, I'm stealing my date back. Thanks for keeping my place warm, Mr. Queen." Damon appeared suddenly, which was becoming a habit.

He stole me away as quickly as he showed back up. I looked back at Oliver and he was just staring at us and then he pointed to his watch, raised up his hand with five fingers and then pointed to the front exit. My coding skills said that meant to meet him outside in five minutes.

I had to find a way to break it to Damon because it was obvious there was only one man I was going home with tonight. I wasn't going to waste another moment without him. As he said, any time away from him was a time I was missing him and I didn't want to miss him anymore.

"Damon, I'm getting a little hot. I'm gonna go get some air, okay?"

"You mean you're going to find Mr. Queen."

"What? What makes you say that?"

"I'd be a fool not to see the way you two looked at each other. I saw you two dancing. If you're trying to hide it, you're doing a bad job."

"I don't know what you –"

"It's okay, Felicity. I kind of hijacked this date anyway. So I'm letting you off the hook. Go talk to him. I'm sure he wants you to."

"You think so, huh?"

"I know so. I can read jealousy a mile away."

"You're not such a bad boy after all, are you? You just pretend to be."

"No, I'm still a bad boy. I just know the look of love when I see it and I'd rather take my chances on someone who looks at me like you look at him."

"Hold on a second, Damon."

I turned around away from him and grabbed a cute girl who had been dancing with her friends but whom I'd seen eying Damon all night.

"Hey," I yelled over the music. "What's your name?" She yelled it back in my ear.

"How would you like to dance with a very hot, bad boy with a heart?"

"I'd love one of those."

"You don't say?"

I grabbed her and spun her around with me.

"Damon, I'd like you to meet my friend Elena. She'd like to dance with you."

"Well, hi, darling. What's that name again?"

"Elena," she smiled widely while taking his hand, never taking her eyes off of him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Elena."

"Likewise."

"You're very beautiful. I might just fall in love with you before this night is over."

"I'm okay with that."

I left the dance floor feeling like I've made a future epic couple very, very happy. I decided to go out on the back balcony for a little air, to clear my head, before I met Oliver.

It was freezing outside, which is why no one was probably out there but me. I lasted a whole minute, said hell no, and came right back in. I came off the balcony which led to a small foyer near the very back of the penthouse suite and stopped in the doorway for a brief second to straighten my dress.

"There you are!"

Oh, no, not now.

"Stefan, what are you doing here?"

"What do you mean? Didn't Damon tell you I had to go home and change?"

"No, he didn't tell me that."

"That figures. Well, I'm here now and guess where you're standing."

I got a sudden pang of nervousness as I prayed that what I was thinking was hanging above me was not going to actually turn out to be the case. I couldn't be that unlucky, could I? I backed up slowly into the frame of the doorway and as I looked up very gingerly and prayed for miracles, there it was hanging noticeably over the doorway.

Although I clearly managed to miss it. My mind is clearly back on the dance floor in Oliver's arms. Can you blame me?

I flashed Stefan my best fake smile as we both looked at this thing that was just daring us to try to fight tradition. In this situation, tradition always won. I knew it and obviously Stefan knew it by the anxious grin on his face.

"So what do you say, Felicity? It's tradition, after all."

Damn you, Tradition.

I smiled a fake smile and I knew it was coming and I had no way out. Stefan was a sweet guy, a great catch for the right girl, but I was the wrong girl. I didn't want to lead him on, but with the mistletoe overhead, I just politely nodded and closed my eyes and just braced for it. The sooner I got it over with, the sooner I could find Oliver.

For a few seconds, there was nothing. But then it happened. When his lips touched mine, I was expecting it to be over in a snap and get the hell out of there, but I wasn't moving. Why couldn't I move a muscle? I had prepared for a quick peck on the lips like most of these awkward mistletoe kissing scenes go and then we'd share our pleasantries about having a Merry Christmas and never speak of it again, at least I wouldn't have. But that didn't happen at all. Boy, did the total opposite of that happen.

I found myself at a disadvantage because I hadn't prepared for what it was I was feeling. With my back pressed against the frame, l was completely incapable of moving away from the soft lips that had pressed into mine with such intensity and such passion because in an instant I had completely been swept away in it and I had no control over what was happening. It wasn't a deep kiss by any means, but this kiss obviously didn't have to be. I was utterly weak in the knees and every other part of me was responding to it in like some stroke of magic just struck my entire body. My heart beat so hard against my chest I thought I might faint from the adrenaline my body was producing. As quickly as I lost control, the kiss ended and I opened up my eyes completely breathless and disoriented in a way I'd never felt before.

"Merry Christmas, Felicity."

I was taken aback by the face before me, but I wasn't surprised by the effect that kiss had on me given who it was standing in front of me.

"You kissed me?"

"I did," Oliver said seducing me with his smile.

"But what happened to Stefan? He was just here, wasn't he?" I started questioning if I had imagined him.

"Are you okay?" He placed his hands on my shoulders.

"Uh, I'm just a little, um…frazzled."

"Frazzled is good," he leaned in and whispered adding to my frazzled state.

"Is it hot in here to you?" I started to fan myself repeatedly.

"No. Why, are you hot?"

"Um, I'll be fine. I just need to catch my breath. You just caught me off guard is all."

"Maybe I should do that more often."

I think we can rule out the maybe part.

"But, seriously, did you do something to Stefan?"

"Oh, someone knocked his drink all over him and he's in the bathroom, but if it's that important to you, I can go get him for you if you want."

"No, no, that's okay." I grabbed his arm to stop his forward motion.

"But it sure is a coincidence you happened to be standing right there to step in when Stefan had to step out."

"Just lucky I guess."

"I guess," I grinned.

"Plus, it's tradition, Felicity."

"Tradition, eh?" Of course you just had to kiss me, right?"

Oliver placed his left arm on the wall next to the side of my head and leaned down with it.

Damn, that's sexy.

"When it comes to you, Felicity, it's never a matter of have to. It's always a matter of want to."

He was inches from me. I was trapped by all accounts, but I couldn't really call it trapped, could I, when I had no intention of escaping Oliver's hold over me. We were still under the mistletoe so technically we had to kiss until someone told us to relinquish the spot, right? It was tradition after all.

See, I can use tradition to my advantage.

"Oliver, if you don't move away from me, you're gonna have to kiss me again."

While still leaning in with his left hand, he took his other hand and grasped the bottom of my ear with his thumb and index finger, tugging softly on the bottom of it, making me spontaneously bite my lip and exhale the breath I had been holding.

"Do you want me to kiss you again?" he said seducing me with his sexy tone.

"Maybe," I teased.

"Hmm…" he mumbled continuing to play with my ear.

"People are going to start staring. You might want to stop doing" – Oh, please don't – "whatever it is that you're doing with my ear."

"Do you want me to stop?"

"Will you stop asking me impossible questions?" I said breathlessly and completely entrapped in his touch.

"Besides, nobody sees us, Felicity, we're in the back of the room and everyone's enjoying the party. Now, what's with this 'maybe'?"

"What about it?" I said playfully.

"Can I kiss you again or not?" he spoke slowly and softly now having moved his fingers along the back of my neck and rubbing them into my skin making it hard to keep up my playful resistance.

yes, Yes, and YES!

"Do you really have to ask me that, Oliver?"

"Yes, because I want to hear you say it."

"Say what?" I whispered, completely having lost my train of thought in the midst of all this overwhelming pleasure that was keeping me preoccupied.

"Ask me to kiss you, Felicity."

I put one hand to my chest to make sure I was still breathing and I was actually standing here.

"Ask me…" he said again with more authority.

His lips were practically on mine, teasing me. I felt it a moot point to even have to ask me this question, but if asking meant it would happen sooner, then asking is what I was going to do.

"Will. You. Kiss. Me? Is that good enough for you?" I said raising a teasing eyebrow.

"You have no idea how much I want to kiss you right now, Felicity." His intense, breathless enunciation of the words added to my already turned-on state of mind.

"No one's stopping you." As soon as I said it, I threw up a finger just in time to stop his lips momentarily.

"And in case I forget to tell you later, this kiss is the best kiss I've ever had."

"How do you know?" he whispered softly.

"Because it's you, Oliver."

My statement stopped him right in his kissing track. He looked at me with a level of intensity and arousal I'd never seen.

"And it's only you...Felicity."

Oliver looked in my eyes and then he looked down at my lips and he moved in ever so slowly, now tracing my waiting mouth with his finger and pondering the words that just came flowing out of it by the way he was staring at me. Somehow he was making me desire him that much more. The anticipation alone was a trigger for intense stimulation. What was I going to do when he laid this kiss on me? I was oblivious to my surroundings and I was too wrapped up in him to even care. I was about to get swept away in something I had never felt before.

I didn't regret one word of what I just said until…

"Hey, you two. Hiding in the corner I see?"

The bitch sleaze is back.

"What do you want, Isabel?" Oliver sounded annoyed as he turned around.

"I told you, Mr. Klein is here and we've got to seal the deal."

"Not now. I'm busy." Oliver's voice began to rise.

"Busy doing what? This is a multi-million dollar deal that you fought for, I might add, because of what it can do for the environment and how it can produce thousands of jobs for unemployed workers."

"I know how important it is. I don't need reminding!" Oliver barked back at her.

"Oliver, maybe you should go talk with Mr. Klein. That's what you came here to do." I spoke up quietly feeling I was taking him away from something important.

"So now your secretary speaks for you? She is just your secretary, right?"

"I know who she is. You don't have to tell me. I will be with you in a minute, Isabel."

(She immediately turned to me) "Aww, I see what's happening here. Did he give you a kiss under the mistletoe? Don't read too much into it, honey. He kisses a lot of girls. I should know."

If Oliver wasn't going to tell this bitch off, I certainly was about to.

"Don't lead the poor girl on. Tell her nothing is going on between you two and let's go make this deal."

"Isabel, stay out of this," Oliver abruptly said even louder.

"What? Has something changed, Oliver? Do tell. I'm all ears."

Oliver stood there silent and I didn't know what to make of it at first and now a room full of bystanders had begun to migrate from the center of the room over toward us and started to point and stare and talk amongst themselves. A party isn't a party without some drama, it seemed. And now we were on full display. Oliver seemed to take note of this in a very peculiar way.

"Is there something you'd like to share with this room full of people, Mr. Queen, about you and your secretary?" the fire-eating harpy scowled.

"As a matter of fact –" I interjected and stepped in front of Oliver ready to let her have it. I was tired of hiding how I felt and most of all I wanted her to eat her words and throw them up badly.

"I've got this, Felicity." Oliver put his hand on my shoulder to stop me and I moved to the side.

Oh, finally, my honor is going to be defended. Let the self-centered cockroach have it.

Oliver hesitated slightly and looked around the room at all the people that were listening to his every word and waiting for his response. I think the only people not listening were those still on the dance floor. Damon, being one of them.

"No, of course nothing is going on between us. She just happened to be under the mistletoe. It could have been anyone. It's tradition, right?"

Oliver's words cut me like a knife and I couldn't quite believe what I had just heard.

I could have been anyone? ANYONE?

"Well, then, let's go. Time is money. Say good-night to your secretary."

"I'm his assistant!" I don't know why I drove home that point after being humiliated under the mistletoe in front of a room full of people.

"And that's apparently all I am," I mumbled under my breath as I bumped into Oliver to get by him.

"Hello, Mr. Queen," a well-dressed man walked up in the middle of the conversation and stopped my forward motion.

"Mr. Klein, so glad you could come to the party," Oliver said shaking his hand.

"Well, I have another pressing matter, so if you and Isabel wanted to make that pitch, it's got to be now or never. I think we can make this deal happen for the good of Starling and many others."

"Yes, I understand. I'll be right with you."

Mr. Klein took the she-devil's arm and she flipped her head toward me and gave me her worst bitchy smirk as she walked a short ways away waiting for Oliver to follow behind. The bystanders that were gathered were gradually walking back to their respective areas realizing there was no real drama going on here.

"You really had be fooled this time, Oliver," I said under my breath but loud enough so he could hear it.

"Felicity, let me explain," he said grabbing my right arm as I tried to leave. "It's not what you think."

"Let go of me, Oliver," I said snatching my arm away.

"Just wait for me for 10 minutes, okay? I've got to handle this."

"Are you kidding me right now?"

"Will you trust me, please?"

"After what you just said?" I threw my head down.

"Oliver, Mr. Klein is waiting," said the snotty shrew barking out another order.

Oliver walked off and all I knew was I had to get out of there. I couldn't breathe. I felt everything caving in on me. If I didn't get out of there, I was about to make an embarrassing spectacle of myself because I felt the tears about to come. Oliver wanted to kiss me, I felt it. I wasn't imagining that. But he certainly didn't want to admit it to a room full of people and especially not to Isabel. Was he ashamed to?

Did he really tell me to wait here? What the hell is going on? Okay, take a deep breath, get yourself together and walk out of here.

I made my way through the crowd as fast as I could straight to the exit. I ran straight into Dig who was near the front entrance.

"What's wrong, Felicity?"

"Nothing. I'm just not feeling well. I'm going to go home."

"Can I get you anything?"

"No, I'll be all right."

"I'll walk you to your car then."

"No, no, it's okay. It's right out front and there's security out there."

"You sure?"

"Yes. I'll see you tomorrow."

I grabbed my sweater from the coat check person and walked into the lobby and stood there for 10 minutes, hoping Oliver would have realized he made a huge mistake and would come running after me to explain everything, but when he never showed, I left out of the building into the parking lot and found my way to my car. I sat in my car and buried my face in the steering wheel, oblivious to the fact it was freezing outside and I didn't bother to turn on my car or the heater that was installed in it just for moments like these.

(On the dance floor)

"Excuse me, Damon."

"Oh, it's you," he gave Oliver a disinterested look and kept dancing.

"And, I'm sorry; I don't think we've met." Oliver stopped to address Damon's dance partner.

"Oh, this is Elena, my soul mate. I met her on the dance floor."

"Wow, that was…fast," Oliver nodded his head at them.

"Hey, man, when you know you know," Damon said looking at his dance partner.

"Sorry to interrupt your love story, but have you seen Felicity around here lately? I need to find her."

"You mean she never found you to talk to you?"

"When? What time was this?"

"Oh, that was earlier when I took her on the dance floor. I'm surprised she never found you."

That's because I found her under the mistletoe. I wish I had that to do over again.

"She's into you, man. I could tell. I knew there was no competing with the way she looked at you."

"And now look what I've done, " Oliver said as he threw his head down.

"Wait, what did you do to her, man?

"We just had a misunderstanding."

"You didn't turn her down, did you?"

(No response.)

"Oh, you did, didn't you? Man, are you crazy? That girl is something special. I mean, she's fucking spectacular. If it wasn't for you, she and I would have been -"

"Excuse me, I'm right here." Damon's soul mate wasn't feeling so soul-matey at the moment.

"Oh, sorry, baby. Felicity was way, way, way before you."

"Yeah, like five minutes before," Oliver mumbled below his breath.

"You know you're the only one for me, baby," he said as he pulled Elena in for a kiss.

"Look, have you seen Felicity recently or not?" Oliver cut in.

"Sorry, man. I've been right here the whole time. But whatever you did, you should apologize for ASAP because that girl deserves to be treated like a queen. No pun intended."

"I know that more than anyone," Oliver said under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, never mind."

"You know, Mr. Queen, I might should kick your ass right now and defend her honor."

"I might not stop you."

"But the sight of blood makes me sick to my stomach. It's a long drawn-out history spanning decades with my family. It would bore you."

"I'm sure it would." Oliver looked at him peculiarly.

"If you see her, will you please tell her I'm looking for her?" Oliver walked away from the dance floor.

"Sure. Whatever. Maybe. Probably not," Damon recited as he continued his dancing.

(Felicity's car)

I finally got enough composure up to start my car. I didn't know how long I had been sitting there, but my toes were numb and my fingers were not far behind. I had to get out of there. I started up my car and headed out of the parking lot.

(Front Entrance of Penthouse)

"Oliver, where have you been, man?" Dig asked concerned.

"Have you seen Felicity?"

"Yes, she left a little while ago. What the hell happened between you two?"

"I'll explain later. I got to go find her."

"She said she was going home. Good luck, man. Whatever you said to her was written all over her face."

I ran outside of the building into the parking lot. There was dead silence except off in the foggy distance. At the far end of the parking lot I saw headlights and then I saw a car leaving. It was her car. As it turned left onto the roadway, I ran out into the middle of the parking yelling as loud as I humanly could. "Felicity!"

To be continued one more time…

Author note: By the way, I've got to go out of town for a special family event so the last chapter won't be posted until probably Monday. Just letting you know. Thanks again for all your kind words. This story was just fun to write.