Chapter 3

BlueSuedeShoes, you're fantastic! Thanks for contributing all the witty lines in this story.

"Just a sec Dig," Felicity called through the door when she heard a rap of knuckles against the wood. She turned the knob and let the door swing open. Then she hurried over to the other side of the room to grab her heels and the bag she had packed. When she actually looked at who was standing in the doorway, she froze. "Oliver?"

"Hey. I like your hair down like that," Oliver tried to say casually. It was a little lie right after he promised to be honest; she looked beautiful.

Felicity was still frozen in place, "You, but, Diggle was supposed to pick me up. Why are you here?" And before Felicity let Oliver get a word in edgewise, she continued, "I was going to finish styling my hair in the car. I'm not actually ready yet." She began to try and smooth her hair down with her hands before pushing it behind her shoulders. The attempt was futile though. Oliver caught her unprepared and unaware.

"I can wait down the in car if you want more time," Oliver offered trying to be considerate while also trying not to stare. He could use a moment in the car to try and focus on his mission. Tonight was about trying to show Felicity that he actually cared about her, and not just as an employee. She was important.

But Felicity was never one to be predictable. She took a deep breath, slid her heels on, and marched out the door. When she got into the hall, she turned and looked at Oliver still standing in the apartment. "You can close the door after you. You've already seen my uncontrollable hair; we might as well get on with the night."

Conversation between Felicity and Oliver was stunted in the car. Oliver was overly cautious not to say something that would offend or frustrate Felicity. Meanwhile, Felicity was overtly trying not to let her mouth run ahead of her brain. The last thing she wanted to do was let slip her little secret about starting a dating profile for Oliver at the wrong moment. But she also had to come clean at some point which would require courage.

Together, they needed to figure out how to wave a white flag and call a truce on their secret, hidden feelings.

Felicity was unsure of what to expect for the night. She felt like she had instigated some of the tension between them and she needed to resolve it. In fact, the more she thought about it, the stronger her conviction that she needed to be the one to make it right. But that's easier said than done. And now Oliver was planning the events for the night so who knew what might be on the table.

When it became apparent that they were headed out to the Queen mansion instead of toward any of the trendy downtown places to eat that Oliver normally frequented, Felicity couldn't keep quiet any longer. And hopefully breaking the stunted conversation would be a good thing. "So…this is the way to your house. What do you have planned for tonight?"

"We should be there in a few minutes. I thought you might not want to talk with me in a public restaurant. With your concerns about how people make assumptions about your promotion, I thought we could have a quiet dinner together instead. Nobody to judge," he added when she still looked a bit confused. "Plus, Raisa does do some pretty fantastic cooking and I am hardly ever there to consume it."

Felicity just nodded in response. It was one of those short and perfunctory nods but Oliver could see the question in her eyes that she was trying hard not to ask.

"Is that alright with you?" Oliver prodded.

"Uh huh," was her articulate response.

He desperately needed to do something to snap Felicity out of her silence. This was wildly out of character for her.

Meanwhile, Felicity was feeling guiltier and guiltier. Oliver was taking her to his house. She had set up a date for him for the next night with a promising looking girl from the dating website. Was Oliver the type of guy who would bring a girl back to his apartment in the city – the one she had never been invited to? Or was he the kind of guy who would try not to get close to the girl and therefore go and get a generic (but likely expensive) hotel room? Would he take a blind date to the Queen mansion? These were questions she could not ask him. But she had watched in horror what happened with Oliver and Isabel in Russia. Her train of thought then led her to wonder if Oliver thought she had expectations because he had promoted her and she mentioned what everyone else was assuming. He wouldn't think that about her though, would he? Everything was getting out of control.

Finally, Diggle stopped the car at the circle in front of the Queen mansion's huge wooden doors.

Oliver and Felicity took a deep breath at the same time. Turning to meet each other's eyes, they chuckled together as they exhaled. But it wasn't a chuckle of merriment, they each realized the other was just as nervous but it didn't relieve any of the pressure. Instead, Diggle came around the car and helped Felicity step out. Oliver hurried forward to open the door for Felicity. The action felt regimented and mechanical instead of sincere.

Oliver ran his hand through his short hair and on the spur of the moment made a decision. "Follow me Felicity."

She followed through the main entry, down a hall, and through a door. They were no longer in the public entertaining area of the mansion. When Oliver opened what looked like a closet door, Felicity couldn't contain her thoughts any longer, "I am not playing 10 minutes in heaven with you Oliver. What are we doing here?"

The corner of Oliver's lips twitched with the hint of a smile, the way it so often did when she blurted things out around him. "Felicity. Just wait."

Oliver opened the door and Felicity realized it was a staircase. When they got to the bottom, Oliver flipped a light switch and the room was illuminated in a cool blue color.

A gasp escaped Felicity's lips. They were in the Queen family's wine cellar filled with racks and racks of wine bottles. The collection had to be worth a small fortune.

"Pick out a bottle, any bottle you want," offered Oliver. He watched her carefully trace the labels on a few of the rarer bottles that were imported by his father before Oliver was even born. When it looked like she had conflicting feelings about two good bottles of wine, Oliver said, "If you can't decide between those, what about this bottle?" He showed Felicity the bottle he had stashed before he went to pick her up.

Felicity was stunned. It was THE bottle of wine. The bottle that started it all. A 1982 Lafite Rothschild. Oliver offered her that bottle of wine the night she began to have serious doubts about who Oliver Queen was and what he was doing. She pined after the bottle of wine because if Oliver would give it to her, it meant that he truly thought about what was important to her. In her rationalization of events, this was exactly what she wanted. Oliver Queen following through with a promise to her.

Felicity met Oliver's eyes and pointed at the bottle while she smiled.

"I thought you would like this bottle," stated Oliver before walking back up the stairs.

Felicity tried to compose herself and follow him, but that was easier said than done. He had a terrible habit of fulfilling her childhood fantasies about the ideal man, and he was doing it again. When she was a little girl, when others had dreamed of handsome princes and riding off into the sunset, Felicity had formulated only a vague idea of her perfect man. She loved the idea of the knight in shining armor riding into battle, a hero to the people, willing to make the ultimate sacrifices for good and innocent people. Then he would come home and be a humble, charming guy. Most importantly, he would see Felicity not as some damsel in distress, but as an equal, someone he could count on to go into battle at his side. And here stood Oliver, fairy tale prince and battle-ready warrior combined. He was modern day royalty, a Queen. And the bottle of wine in his hand, it might not be meant as romantic, but the fact that he remembered their history, it was a still a gesture of friendship that had her heart fluttering. As for being a hero to the people? That was a given.

She followed him back up, mind heavy with guilt as she took each step behind him, letting him lead the way out onto a back patio that offered a magnificent view of the Queen estate that wasn't visible from the road. Felicity's breath caught in her chest as she took in the dimly lit lanterns and candles set out on the low stone wall and table. An assortment of cheeses, honeys, fruits, and other hors d'oeuvres had been arranged on tiny plates and bowls, perfect for any wine tasting.

If this was how Oliver put together a night with a friend, she didn't think any girl in Starling City stood a chance, let alone the girls on the dating site.

Her gut tightened. She had to tell him. Oliver, I kind of, sort of, possibly may have created an online dating site for you. She practiced the idea in her mind and shook her head. No, that won't work. She looked up to see Oliver, who had frozen in horror, cork halfway out of the wine bottle. He was staring at her like she had lost her very mind.

Oh, Felicity thought with mild panic. It looks like my mental filter's stopped working again.

"You can say that again," Oliver ground out.

Felicity winced as she replayed the last few moments in her mind again. She just told Oliver she started an online dating site behind his back.

"Are you mad?"

"I…you…I…" he stammered for words and she could see the anger bubbling forward, soon to be out of control.

"I did it for your own good! And partly for mine because I never get a moment's peace but it was mostly for you!" she rushed to defend herself.

"You created an online dating profile for me?" Oliver half shouted. "Are you kidding, Felicity?" he rubbed a hand over his face, trying to reign himself in. "What the — Why, just why, Felicity?"

Felicity swallowed nervously. "It actually got a lot of hits, so—"

"FELICITY WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?' Oliver's mind was reeling. What had she been thinking? "Felicity…" he took a deep breath, controlling himself when he saw the look in her eyes that said plainly how much she didn't like being yelled at, even though she was firmly standing her ground, lips tight in defiance. "Felicity," he repeated, "even if you think you were doing me a favor—which I'm frankly not sure how you could have thought that—this is just so…so…misguided. I mean, do you even have any idea what I look for in a woman?" Never mind the fact that Oliver was starting to think that she herself was exactly what he was looking for.

"Oh, like you do?" Felicity huffed, rolling her eyes. "Oliver, you bounce around more than anyone I've ever met, and you seriously have got to make yourself get back out there." She resisted an urge to make a biting remark about his choices lately, thinking of Isabel and plowed ahead. "I mean, Oliver you are wound so freaking tight lately. You need to have some fun for God's sake—"

That was what he thought he'd been trying to do here, Oliver thought grimly, setting down the as yet still unopened bottle of wine with a sinking feeling.

"—when I scheduled that date for you I figured—"

"YOU WHAT?" Oliver bellowed and Felicity cringed.

"Did I not mention that? Right. Well, I did," she folded her arms protectively. "And she seems really great, and frankly, even if you don't admit that you owe this to yourself because you really, really need to get your mind off work and arrow stuff…well then, you owe it to me because, Oliver, at least one of us deserves to have a life and apparently if you don't have one then I'm not going to have one."

It was like Oliver's entire being had deflated. It hadn't even occurred to her…he glanced at the table set up for them. He moved toward her, reaching out and gently touching her arm, needing to find a way to connect, to get them on the same wavelength. "Felicity, that's what I was trying to…I was trying to apologize for that tonight. I know I haven't been fair to you, I—"

Her face softened and she cut him off before he could finish. "I know, Oliver, and I really appreciate it. But as nice as this is—and," she glanced around her at the candlelight, the wine, the romantic setting in general, "this is incredibly nice—it's not going to fix the problem. Please do this for me. She seems really great online. And you might actually have fun, although I know that's a foreign concept," she teased and Oliver looked up, clearly biting his tongue. "And if you don't have a good time then you don't have to see her again. And I'll let you have the password to the dating site so you can take it down if you still want to. But I think you should consider it."

Oliver studied her carefully before finally dropping his hand from her arm and stepping away. "So let me get this straight: I go out with this girl one time—"

"Just once," she encouraged eagerly as Oliver finally finished removing the cork from their wine and began pouring it into the decanter.

"—and then when I know she's not the one—"

"If," she corrected.

"–when," he insisted. "Then you'll let me take down this ridiculous site?"

She nodded. "Yes, if you still want to," she added hopefully. Felicity noticed Oliver was beginning to look devious. Then she realized something she should have thought of before. "No, you will not conveniently slip out of the restaurant and leave your date hanging. You have to spend the whole meal with her. Talk to her. Relax. I'll have surveillance on you so don't try anything crafty.

Oliver deflated a little but relented, "All right Smoak." He poured a little of the wine into two glasses and offered her one. For her, he'd do it. He'd take the girl out to a nice dinner, let her down easy, and then return to the master plan of winning Felicity over. "You've got a deal. I take her out on one date, and then the webpage goes down. Immediately," he added, so they'd be clear.

Felicity grinned. "You won't regret it. Tomorrow night, dinner for two, reservations at 8:00. Dress sharp and go with an open mind," she informed him.

The corner of his mouth pulled into a smirk and he clinked glasses. "You're on," he informed her as they both took a sip.

Felicity grinned not just from the quality of the wine, which was absolutely delicious. "Good," she said, "and then I can finally stop postponing my date with David."

Oliver choked a little when she mentioned David again. He would have to do something about this David character.

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