Chapter 4

Big thanks to BlueSuedeShoes for her help with this story!

Oliver pulled into the valet at a new restaurant in Starling City. He was not excited about this evening but he had to follow through with his bargain with Felicity. He would never be able to get the dating site down without her approval due to her far superior computer skills. He also felt like he had to prove to her that he could be a regular person, if only for one night.

Plus, his previous non-date, test the waters to see if they could date, data had backfired on him. Now he had to redeem himself.

He stepped up to the hostess and she immediately started eyeing him; Oliver wanted to bail on this evening. Before he could say anything, the girl said, "Oliver, we have your table ready, right this way." Felicity did manage to use his cover up name, right? So how did the hostess know who he was? He should have asked more questions about how this 'Oliver King' thing was going to go. Should he tell the girl he was meeting he was actually the Oliver Queen if she didn't recognize him?

He followed her to a quiet table with an exceptional view of the city. When the waiter arrived, Oliver ordered a bottle but could only think of the bottle he shared with Felicity the day before. This would be a long night. He had to remind himself – Felicity was worth this. He would ultimately win her over. Letting her set him up for a blind date was tolerable if she eventually realized she was his type.

That's when he realized, he could make her realize it much faster if he used Felicity's tactics.

Oliver was so wrapped up in his thoughts he didn't notice his date had arrived. Hurriedly he stood and extended his hand. But she reached out to hug him. It was an awkward few seconds before they hugged and sat.

"Abby, it's so nice to meet you," Oliver stated, trying to sound like he believed his own words.

Luckily for Oliver, Abby delighted in carrying the entire conversation, appetizers through the shared dessert, Abby insisted on sharing the chocolate molten cake. At least she didn't try to feed him any of it.

"It's been a wonderful evening, I really enjoyed our conversation," said Abby. She was a nice person, she told him about the charity work she did, the dog she rescued from the shelter, and how close she was with her parents. But she wasn't the girl for him.

"It was nice," Oliver later stated. And it was true—Oliver had had plenty of time to generate his plan to win over Felicity and he was anxious to put it into action.

"There is a new gallery opening at the Starling City gallery on Friday, would you like to go?"

Oliver sighed. This was why he really hated blind dates, especially when he already knew who he wanted to be on a date with. "No thanks," how do you let down a nice girl? "You're really nice–"

"Gotcha," Abby stated before turning to leave. "If you change your mind, message me."

Oliver returned to Queen Consolidated to put his new plan into action. Hopefully Felicity wouldn't check his browser history and discover what he was up to.

He fumbled his way through logging into his dating profile. He read through everything on his page. Did Felicity really put he enjoyed rescuing damsels in distress? There was that time when the Dodger put a bomb around her neck (which also happened to be the evening she wore a particularly memorable gold dress that still made Oliver's mouth go dry when he thought about it). And then they broke into Merlyn Global and escaped through the elevator shaft (the scene of one of Felicity's more memorable Freudian slips). Not to mention the underground casino, when he'd had to come charging in to her rescue once again (and the first time Felicity had called him her 'partner'). He wondered if Felicity thought about those times when she wrote his bio.

Oliver signed up to create a new account. But instead of making an account for himself, he created one for Felicity Smoke. She slightly altered his name; he could use a homophone for her name too, right? He narrowed the characteristics of the person she was looking for so that her profile would match his own profile. Sure enough, when Oliver checked who the top compatible people were for Felicity Smoke's account, the smiling picture of Oliver King made it on the list. Now he just had to bait her into going on a date.

Felicity was bored of David. He was predictable, stable, safe. Everyone at the synagogue was encouraging them. Her mom seemed to think he was everything her Dad was not which gained her approval. But Felicity wasn't excited about the relationship. For all the talk of wanting some personal time, the evening wasn't even a good break from life. She would prefer to be bored in board meetings over sitting through this date a second time. And that was saying something – Isabel was at board meetings so there were awful.

Instead, she spent the night reflecting on their experiences in Hebrew school. Then he asked about her work. That was a stunted topic – she couldn't talk about her work for the hood and she didn't want to talk about being Oliver's executive assistant much. It was demeaning enough during office hours. She didn't want to discuss it on a date, too.

Finally, Felicity convinced David that continuing their discussion on the recent good weather in Starling City was not interesting. She high tailed it out of the restaurant and straight to the Foundry. As she descended the stairs, Felicity asked, "Why didn't I get a couch for this place? I really want a place to just flop down and kick off these horrible shoes."

Felicity surveyed the scene. Diggle had apparently found somewhere else he needed to be that night. Probably with Lyla again, denying they had chemistry. Oliver was seated cleaning leather with what smelled like saddle soap.

"Please tell me there's a case we need to get on tonight," Felicity declared. "Or even a lonely cat stuck in a tree. Anything. I need something to eliminate the numbness in my brain."

"But it's your night off. The night off you insisted on," stated Oliver while picking up the next boot to be scrubbed. "Besides, I only just got here. Someone insisted that I also go on a date." He gave her a meaningful look.

"Forget I ever said those things. I want to work on something. I am fully committed to this team Arrow thing. Let's find something messy happening tonight to keep busy. Maybe you can even find something where I need to go undercover. That will definitely make me forget about this abomination of a date night."

"So I take it the date didn't go well?" asked Oliver.

Felicity just glared back at him.

"So no questions about how my date went?" asked Oliver, although perhaps 'baited' was a better description.

Felicity sat down and responded, "Yes, how did your date go?"

"It went well, thanks for asking. I mean, she's not the girl for me, but I have another date from your dating website lined up for tomorrow." Oliver discretely looked up at Felicity.

She was surprised, the shock was clear on her face. "Ugh, you like blind dates that much? And, and what about the innocent people of Starling City? They need someone out there protecting them because the police department just can't keep up with everything at once. You can't take two days off in a row."

"I guess the citizens will just have to watch their own backs for a night." He stood up and returned his boots to their shelf. "So I'm going to be busy tomorrow night, what will you be doing?" asked Oliver.

"Since I normally never have a free night – no thanks to you- the top possibilities for my evening entertainment are actually buying groceries for my apartment, cleaning the apartment I am never in, or catching up on work since I have two full time jobs for you that keep me from having time to myself to catch up on items one and two on my list of possible things I might do tomorrow."

Felicity's date really didn't go well Oliver observed. She was normally never so vehement with her complaints.

"Well, I guess I can narrow down the possibilities for what you do tomorrow night," stated Oliver. He walked by her desk and dropped a manila folder in front of her. "Got to go, see you tomorrow!" he called out as he made for the exit, hoping this plan wouldn't turn sour on him. Was it a good sign when he glanced over his shoulder at Felicity and noticed a twinkle in her eye despite the scowl on her face?