Chapter 2
Thanks again to the amazing BlueSuedeShoes for helping out with this story!
Oliver drummed his fingers, chewing thoughtfully on the inside of his cheek. He shot a look in Felicity's direction, but she wasn't looking at him like she had been for most of the morning. As the work day wound down, she was answering a couple of phone calls on her blue tooth, typing something rapidly into her computer and unsuccessfully trying to blow a strand of hair from her face. It was probably an appointment for tomorrow. Or next month. Hell, he was probably booked solid for the next twelve months. Vaguely, he remembered how he had felt about taking over his father's company before being stranded on the island. He'd wanted nothing to do with it. Part of him still remembered why.
Not that it mattered.
Felicity made a frustrated face and twisted her neck, trying to get a kink out of her shoulder. She caught his eye and they both immediately pretended they hadn't been looking at the other one. He couldn't figure out what was up with her today. She'd been acting really strangely. And she was up to something. There was no doubt about it because although Felicity might [arguably] be a good secret keeper, she was a horrible liar.
He thought back to this morning, at her gawking when he'd asked for the notes from yesterday. What had she been doing during that meeting if she wasn't taking notes? And more importantly, why couldn't she tell him? What secret could she possibly have left that he didn't know about at this point? Well aside from any of her history prior to his arrival back in Starling City. He would have to figure out what the distinction was between her closed mouth on her history versus her horrible lying another time.
Heaving a tired sigh, he began straightening the items in his in-tray, shoving a few folders in a drawer, and otherwise clearing his desk for the day. He shut down his computer and grabbed his blazer, slipping it over his arms and heading for the door.
When he pushed it open, Felicity jumped and immediately stopped mid-sentence. He frowned. Was it not a business call? Who was she talking to? Eyes narrowed, he started walking toward her desk and watched her scramble to close out of several different windows and devices.
"Yes, thank you, Miss Williams. I'm so sorry, I have to go, but I'll get back to you later about the…erm…plans. Your evening plans, I mean. Er…yeah. No, goodbye. Take care!" she spilled breathlessly before tapping her blue tooth, just in time to look up and find Oliver leaning over her, wiggling the mouse to disable the screen saver on her computer.
"Who was that?" Oliver asked casually.
"No one! Hey, listen," she said, sliding out of her chair and away from his aftershave and those damn pinstripes, "would you consider yourself a lone wolf or an alpha male?"
Oliver paused before slowly turning his head to look at her. "What?" he deadpanned.
"I just wasn't sure. I figure you're definitely not a pack animal, but I couldn't decide between lone wolf and alpha male because even though you're really independent, you're also extremely dominating."
"I…you…what?" Oliver asked finally, completely lost.
"Lone wolf? Or Alpha?"
"Felicity, what on earth are you talking about?" He watched as she pulled her cell phone out and started tapping furiously into it.
"Definitely an alpha."
"FELICITY!"
She jumped. "What? Jeez!"
"Felicity, what were you doing just now, and why are you being so secretive?" he asked, gesturing at her desk where he found she'd cleared her internet history.
"I…nothing. I was just taking care of some plans. For you. I mean not you, obviously, you can take care of your own plans; you're a grown man. Well except for your work plans, technically that's what I get paid to do now–"
"Felicity."
"Shutting up."
"So…you're not going to tell me what you were doing. On the company computer."
"Oliver, you don't want to know half the things I've done on company computers."
He stared at her, and she closed her eyes.
"Dammit," she hissed under her breath.
Oliver gave up. He'd figure it out later. "So listen, I need you and Dig to—"
"What?" she interrupted.
He gave her a look. "You. Me. Dig. Mission."
"Tonight?"
"Yes, Felicity, when else?"
"I can't."
Now he really wanted to know what's up. His jaw ticked in annoyance. "What do you mean, you can't?"
"It's Friday. I have…plans."
"Felicity, this is kind of important."
She was starting to get that fiery look behind her eyes that was usually a good warning that he was stepping into jerk-territory. But he couldn't seem to stop himself. He plowed ahead recklessly, knowing he was going to regret it.
"And my life isn't important?" she demanded.
"Of course it is, but I think we all have to prioritize a little."
"Oh sure, it's not enough that my love-life has been taking it on the chin for months, or that my professional life has gone up in flames, but now my family life has to be thrown off a cliff, too!" she said, voice rising.
"Felicity, it's one night. I hardly think—"
"You don't think, do you? You have no idea the effect that this is having on everyone around you!"
"Is this about Dig again? Felicity, I apologized—"
"MEN!" Felicity yelled in a huff. She walked over to her desk and started throwing her things in her bag, preparing to leave.
"Felicity, I can't read minds. Would you please—"
"You don't have to be able to read minds, Oliver. You just have to use your own goddamn brain! How do you think it looks for me that I got promoted from IT girl to Executive Assistant out of the blue?"
Oliver's mind rippled with the memory of Isabel commenting on Felicity's short skirts. "What were her qualifications?" she'd asked.
"I am tired of getting sideways glances and dirty looks and knowing smirks from everyone in this building! It is killing me!"
"Felicity, we've all–"
"—had to make sacrifices. Dear God, Oliver if I have to hear you say that one more time! Do you understand that the last three dates I've tried to go on have all been interrupted by the vigilante?! Even when I try to hang out with a guy in on the vigilante secret, you want me here instead. And I know you're still angry about me telling Barry, but I thought you would appreciate being alive over being angry that someone else found out. So then I tried to move on and see who else is out there but that's not good enough for you. You need me 24/7. Tell me, when did the company wide 'no dating before marriage' ban go into effect?" Felicity pleaded.
Oliver shifted uncomfortably. His timing…may not have been completely considerate of Felicity's personal life lately. Not that he was going to admit it. She had more important things to do than date twerpy David from her synagogue.
"EXCUSE ME!" Felicity thundered.
Oliver winced almost undetectably. Had he said that last bit out loud? He hated to make Felicity mad but somehow he let his guard slip in her presence. Unfortunately, letting his guard down had a tendency to backfire creating an enraged Felicity. Oliver tried to back pedal. "That's not what I meant," pleaded Oliver. He was going to regret his latest slip of the tongue.
"I work all day at your company and then I work all night for your pet project. And you don't respect me enough to keep your mouth shut about the microscopic amount of personal space that I try desperately to maintain? He is kind and has no criminal history—yes, I did a background check!—but you probably don't understand someone who has a sense of humanity." She snatched up her bag and her tablet before hastily exiting the office. Felicity was irate. It felt like Oliver had attacked her last shred of personal space. How did he know about David? Was he stalking her?
Oliver watched Felicity storm out of the office but didn't know what to do to stop her. Well, he could forcibly restrain her but he knew that would just give fuel to the fire of her anger. Instead he let her go, feeling like a complete heel. He flopped down on his chair and looked out the window of his corner office. The world outside just made him feel smaller and lost. A minute later he noticed a familiar blond ponytail moving down the sidewalk. Felicity didn't have her normal bounce to her step and it was his fault.
Oliver grabbed his phone and called Diggle to bring the car around. He would go to the Foundry and try to work off his frustration. Darn cell phones didn't let you slam the phone after talking on them though.
Felicity grabbed ice cream out of her freezer and curled up on her sofa with a blanket as soon as she walked into her apartment. Her mother was being her mother again. There was always something dramatic going on. Unfortunately, Felicity lamented again that her mother was never a model of how to have a healthy or lasting relationship with a guy. Instead, she was in her mid-twenties trying to piece together her feelings by trial and error. But mostly by error.
The whole way back to her apartment, Felicity had been stewing over her conversation with Oliver. She wanted to stay angry with him, but she didn't know if she could. She had probably insulted him just as much as he insulted her. She had basically called him inhuman for his violent form of seeking justice. But she had watched his transformation over the last year. He would give second chances to criminals and he would turn over anyone he could to the police rather than letting his wrath overtake him, dropping them with an arrow through the chest. He did respect her opinion on work and Hood related issues. It was just all the personal stuff that they had not worked out yet. She might have an unfortunate lack of filter but she never actually talked with Oliver about how much she wanted to have some personal space outside of their work. Instead she bottled it all up and it overflowed when Oliver talked about Barry or David.
The worst part was Felicity was upset with Oliver for meddling in her personal life, but she was meddling in his too. She created that online dating site behind his back. It was supposed to be a joke, but it always had a malicious edge to it, like it would provide a form of revenge for his disruption to her personal life. The more she reflected on it, the more she thought she might have created it to try to embarrass him. But another thought was tugging at her mind. She might have made the profile to make his emotions directed toward her. Anger was a closely related emotion to love, right? The idea that she wanted Oliver to love her was almost too much though.
She looked down at her pint of mint chip ice cream and realized that half of it was already gone. She needed to do something other than wallow on the couch. She needed to try to apologize to Oliver, if for no other reason than to apologize for leaving work early. She glanced at her tablet, sticking out of her purse from work, and thought about the website. There had been a surprising number of quality women on the site, in between the crazies and the gold-diggers. Maybe the best way to turn this around would be to use it to actually help him. Maybe what Oliver really needed was a night out on the town, not unlike herself.
Diggle observed that Oliver was doing significantly more stalking around the Foundry than actually working out. Clearly something was frustrating him but he was being his annoyingly tight-lipped self about it. Diggle just tried to distract himself with some reading while Oliver mulled over his latest frustration.
Eventually, Oliver stalked over to Diggle and collapsed in a chair.
Diggle just raised an eyebrow as if he was oblivious to Oliver's foul mood and waited.
Oliver let out a deep breath and began, "Do I demand too much of your personal time with work and Hood stuff?"
"No. But that's not what you wanted to ask," stated Diggle. He pretended to keep reading an article while Oliver stewed some more.
"But you and Carly couldn't work it out. It was because you were doing all this stuff with me wasn't it?" questioned Oliver.
Diggle finally put down his magazine and looked at Oliver. "Felicity and I are different people. You can't ask me questions and expect them to apply to her too."
"Who said anything about Felicity?" shot back Oliver.
"Oliver," Diggle leveled with him, "you don't angrily call me to pick you up from the office where you work with Felicity, pace around the basement with a chip on your shoulder, and then ask me questions about a relationship that ended a year ago, and then expect me to believe it's not about Felicity."
Oliver could do nothing but nod in agreement.
"So what really happened today?" Diggle prompted.
"Felicity got angry when I let slip that she wanted to date a kid that would be no good for her. Then she blew up about how I dominate her personal life before she stormed out."
Diggle's ever-raised eyebrow raised a little hire. "And why exactly was this 'kid' no good for her?"
"She can do better. That's not the point. The point is she thinks I'm making it impossible for her to have a life. Which is ridiculous. I don't ask any more of her than I do of you or myself."
That was a little too easy to argue with, so Diggle bit his tongue. "I see. So Felicity stormed out when you calmly suggested she prioritize her personal life?"
Oliver shifted. That might not have been exactly what happened.
"And now how are you feeling about that?"
"I didn't hire you to be a psychiatrist," Oliver simmered, his forehead creased.
"So you do have a sense of humor locked away somewhere," Diggle said with a slight chuckle. "You had better find a way to apologize to Felicity. She's the best thing that has happened to this little justice-venture you started down here. Not to mention she's done you a lot of good, too. You need to talk to her, and you need to work out some boundaries."
"Fine." Oliver picked up his cell phone and dialed Felicity's number. Just when he was sure it was going to go to voicemail he heard her greeting. "Uh, I just wanted to apologize for what I said this afternoon. Do you think I could make it up to you?"
Oliver didn't hear her respond right away. At least she seemed to be thinking about it. "What do you have in mind?" she asked finally.
"I can buy you some dinner and grovel for most of the meal for your forgiveness, and then we can talk about personal boundaries?" he suggested, hoping the joke would ease her mood. "That is, if you don't have plans tonight. You said something about family, right?"
There was a pause before Felicity ignored the question. "Will you be inarticulate with a side of moody the whole night?" challenged Felicity.
"Maybe."
"Well, at least you're being honest right now. And self-aware. Sure."
"Great, I'll have Diggle pick you up at 7."
"K, and Oliver," Felicity paused before her words spilled quickly out of her mouth; "I'm sorry too and didn't mean to call you inhuman or a stalker."
"Wait you called me a stalker?" he asked.
"Okay, bye!" she scrambled to hang up the phone.
"See you tonight then."
They both sat motionless for a moment after the phone call. Neither knew if the evening was to work on their professional relationship, two friends hanging out, or even a date. What were the appropriate measures to take to date a coworker? And how could they find the courage to be honest with each other?