Chapter 5
Many thanks to BlueSuedeShoes for all of her edits and advice on this story!
Felicity tried to glare at Oliver as he left. But really, she was glad to have a project to work on. Her date had been miserable and she wanted to bury any memories of the awkward encounter by diving into a project.
The file folder was an Arrow project. It had the label sticker on the spine and a paperclip holding a picture of the suspect inside the folder. Like all mysteries for Felicity, it had magnetic pull. She couldn't resist. Walking over, she picked up the folder and sat down in her swivel chair. Who was the unlucky victim of Oliver's vigilante work this time?
She read the name and immediately did a double take. Plain as day in Oliver's scrawl was Felicity Smoke written on the label. What was that insufferable man thinking? She couldn't help but smile.
Her curiosity overwhelmed her and she opened the file. Paper clipped to the folder was a candid picture of her in the foundry. It was actually a cute picture. She was wearing her favorite earrings and Oliver had captured an inquisitive expression on her face. Apparently whatever project she was working on was engrossing because she didn't remember Oliver taking that picture. If she had, she surely would have swatted him away immediately.
Then she looked at the papers enclosed. Oliver had set up a dating profile for her. She couldn't help a burst of self-deprecating laughter at the realization. Well, that explained why he spelled her name wrong—just getting a little payback for what she did to him. An eye for an eye.
She skimmed through the bio he wrote about her. For an antic of revenge, it was actually kind of…flattering. A little crease formed in her brow. Then she got to the last page of the file. It was a simulated conversation between Oliver King and Felicity Smoke. In the conversation Oliver King coyly asked Felicity Smoke to accompany him to dinner the next night. What's more, she accepted.
The conversation ended after Oliver King said, "Great, I'll pick you up at 7. Then after the date you can have the password to your account and do what you want with it."
That sneaky bastard had trumped her prank. Now she was trapped into another date, but one that she found, oddly enough, she was not dreading despite her dating experience earlier that evening. She smirked.
The next day was an ordinary day on the executive floor of the Queen Consolidated Headquarters. Oliver had half a dozen meetings to attend. As a result, he was constantly bustling in and out of his office throughout the morning.
Overnight a stack of papers materialized on Felicity's desk which she was busily attending to all morning. Payroll had made some kind of error which the head of the office was trying to push up the corporate ladder so they did not have to deal with it. However, Felicity adamantly did not want to deal with it either. The battle of wits was swinging in Felicity's favor though. She might have also made a note on the head of payroll's file about their resistance to doing tasks specifically designated for the payroll office, in addition to letting the error develop in the first place.
Before Felicity or Oliver knew it, it was lunch time. This presented an interesting dilemma for the two. Normally, there would be friendly banter between them all morning as they each complained about a staff member or mundane task they had to perform. When lunch time rolled around, one of them would announce they had a craving for a favorite restaurant's take out and volunteer to order two meals.
The atmosphere between Oliver and Felicity wasn't tense throughout the morning, but it was charged. They each seemed to be walking on eggshells and neither wanted to be the first to break the silence. They were sharing little smiles, but neither had actually talked to the other.
Isabel Rochev managed to solve that dilemma though. "Oliver," she demanded his attention when she stepped into the office.
Felicity watched Oliver look Isabel up and down before turning back to her computer screen in disgust. What could Oliver possibly see in that girl?
"Humm," responded Oliver. He looked for all the world like the son of a billionaire in that moment: dressed in a tailored charcoal suit and about to cave to whatever demands Isabel had for his time.
"Lunch meeting, how could you forget?" whined Isabel.
Felicity pulled up Oliver's schedule for the day. There was no lunch meeting scheduled. Oliver had turned back to her and his facial expression asked Felicity if there really was a meeting. All she could do in response was shrug.
And so Oliver dutifully followed Isabel to the conference room while Felicity grabbed her purse. It was a comfort food day; she needed to forget about Oliver and Isabel. Well, try to forget about them.
Meanwhile Oliver was in a meeting with Isabel and a representative of Unidec Industries. The subsidiary was trying to get back on their feet after the Markov Device fiasco. Today, that mean they were boring Oliver with proposals for a new direction for their research: software engineering. Oliver just kept thinking about how excited Felicity would be if Unidec decided to go in a tech focused path. She was really the one that should be in this meeting, Oliver didn't have any real idea what the proposal was about; Felicity would explain it to him later.
Eventually, the presentation concluded and Oliver was freed from the meeting. Of course, he couldn't escape Isabel that easily. She insisted on asking him numerous questions about his impression of the Unidec presentation, results of the previous board meetings, and his plans for the coming company party. She ended up leaning against the wall across from his office while he was trapped in conversation with her. Didn't she know the walls were all glass, anyone could see her trying to flirt with him. She was obviously trying to get him to invite her to accompany him to the company party; he just didn't want Felicity to see this encounter.
Finally escaping Isabel's clutches, Oliver returned to his office. As he expected Felicity was adamantly trying to ignore him. Of course, Oliver had been watching Felicity for long enough that he knew she was hurt by the interaction between Isabel and Oliver in the hallway. To try and show her Isabel didn't matter to him, he finally broke the silence between them. "So you will be ready at 7 tonight? In case you haven't called every restaurant in town to figure out what I have planned, I have a reservation at the new Mediterranean restaurant by the marina. I made a special request for a table with a view of the marina…so we'll catch the sunset," he added when she still hadn't said anything. "…if you decide to come, that is?"
Felicity just nodded her head but the blush on her cheeks gave her away. She was pleased. He had a feeling that she was keeping her mouth shut to keep herself from babbling. The corner of his mouth twitched at the thought, but he turned his head to hide it.
Right on schedule, at seven o'clock Oliver knocked on Felicity's door.
When Felicity opened the door, after hurriedly grabbing her heels and shoving some stuff into her purse, she was not greeted by the traditional bouquet of flowers. Instead, Oliver had brought something much, much better. "Ice cream! How thoughtful!" exclaimed Felicity.
Oliver faked being put off by Felicity's response, "Just what every guy wants to hear when they arrive for the first date. The girl is excited about the food rather than the guy."
"Don't you know that the way to a girl's heart it through the delivery of Ben and Jerry's? I'll just go put this in the freezer." As she walked away she called over her shoulder, "and don't think you will get to eat any of this pint, it's all mine now."
Oliver just chuckled. He was glad that the silence from earlier in the day was apparently no longer an issue.
Together, they walked to Oliver's car and he quickly sped toward the restaurant. All that time, and she was still biting her tongue. "Felicity, just spit it out, what are you thinking about now?"
"It's just what you said back at my house. Is this really our first date? Or is it some kind of weird role playing thing because you never actually asked me out on a date. And while we are on the subject of how we arrived at this point headed toward a dinner together, why did you think I gave you a whole different last name? Smoak and Smoke are spelled differently but they sound the same. That means that during conversation I won't know if you are talking to me, Smoak, or that phony Smoke who has all the same interests as me but her profile didn't say anything about her strange tendency to babble causing her endless embarrassment."
"Prattling like that?" Oliver asked while he cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Case in point," she stated.
"Felicity," Oliver began in a serious tone. "Will you go out on a date with me?"
Felicity smiled back at him. It was her radiant smile that he loved. "Yes, on one condition."
"I'm supposed to be a business man now; you can't expect me to accept a condition when I have not heard the terms."
Felicity smiled, "If we end up back at my apartment you have to stop and get your own pint of ice cream. I can eat an entire pint in one sitting and I don't like to share."
"And I assume this condition will hold for all ice cream pints in the future too?" Oliver asked with a crocked smile.
"You learn quickly, young grasshopper." Felicity said in an imitation of Master Po. "It's also true for milkshakes, French fries, and boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I will allow bartering though."
"It's good that we lay these ground rules before I make a fool of myself when I try to sample your meal without permission and you go off on a tirade."
Felicity just smiled at Oliver. She was doing a lot of smiling that evening, she realized, so unlike the evening she spent with David.
Upon arriving at the restaurant they were lead to a table with the promised view of the marina as the sky was beginning to turn a breathtaking flaming gold.
The conversation flowed easily. Once the strange awkwardness of admitting that they were going on a real date had passed, Oliver and Felicity settled into their familiar camaraderie as they discussed topics deeper than the weather but never talking about their relationship or why they were together for the meal. However, Oliver had asked the waitress to make sure the wine glasses remained full, which eventually helped to loosen their tongues.
"So how does this dinner compare with your lunch with Isabel today?" Felicity asked.
"Not even close. I have not been concerned at any point that you might try to hit me," Oliver smiled.
"But…I mean, she's just, don't you feel like she's more on your level?" Felicity pressed. "She's the enterprising young professional. With sexy model legs. And she's your partner at Queen Consolidated. She has a stellar business reputation, even if it is cut throat and devious. The media would love to put you two together. Starling City's most eligible bachelor with the stunning rags to riches business princess of the city. They're probably twelve-year-old girls just waiting to combine your photos to see what your creepy computer-generated children would look like." Felicity frowned. Wine. She needed more wine.
"Just because the media thinks it would be great doesn't mean it's right for me." His mouth tugged into a smile. "Or our extremely hypothetical creepy future children. We don't have anything to talk about except arguing about how to run the company." Oliver stated.
Felicity was insistent though, "But you both speak Russian. And drink vodka like it's water. I speak tech and get drunk after…" she mentally calculated, "about two and a half glasses of wine apparently. You both circulate among the rich and famous of Starling City. I circulate IT pamphlets at the office!" the pitch of her voice was rising slightly. "The two of you have so much in common," she argued. She couldn't help it. She'd always liked Oliver, but they'd never made sense as a couple. Even she could see that. And she'd always assumed he did, too. "I'm just a plain IT girl who wound up as your executive assistant. She's the freaking fairy queen." It was her fear that Oliver still had feelings for Isabel.
"I know, and have you checked out her teeth?" asked Oliver.
"I know! She has perfect pearly white teeth," added Felicity. She didn't realize Oliver's type was good teeth but whatever.
Oliver chuckled. "Felicity, you missed my point. When you are evaluating a horse to buy you always check its teeth first. But that's if you are looking to make an investment for pragmatic purposes. You don't fall for a person because of their resumé. You fall for a person. And I sure haven't fallen for Isabel."
"But that night in Russia you were all over Isabel! How am I supposed to compete with that?" cried Felicity, not realizing she had been waving her fork around haphazardly for several minutes, and almost thrown it at the waiter when he came to check on them but promptly retreated in light of the conversation underway.
"You don't have to compete with that," Oliver told her firmly, hand reaching out to still hers. "I was lonely and let it get the best of me. It's not going to happen again. She and I…we're not interested in each other long term. We never were."
Felicity still looked unsatisfied with his answer.
"Look, I arranged for both of us to be here tonight. I could have had dinner with Isabel but I choose to have dinner with you. Hell, I could have had dinner with the entire list of women you so kindly arranged to auction me off to," he reminded. "And with the exception of this topic, I would like to repeat dinners like this with you again very soon."
Felicity looked up at Oliver through her eyelashes. "You would? And you're sure you're not interested in Isabel?"
"Of course I'm sure. You are the one I trust," stated Oliver. "And really, Felicity, there are a lot of women out there who have a lot of great qualities, but no one, not even Isabel, can compete with you in the category of adorable babbling." He winked and she rolled her eyes, but grinned anyway.
At the end of the date Oliver pulled some folded papers out of his blazer jacket pocket. It was Felicity's password information for her dating profile.
Felicity picked up one of the chocolate covered strawberries and took a large bite and chewed. She knew Oliver was watching her like a hawk. After dragging out the agony for Oliver she responded, "I guess it wouldn't hurt if Oliver King was able to continue to courting Felicity Smoke."
"Good, because Oliver Queen would like to invite Felicity Smoak to the company party next week."
Felicity reached over and punched Oliver on his bicep. "You only give me one week's notice to get ready for a party? That's incredibly rude. My boss is notorious for not giving me time off. It says so right here in my profile," she tapped the paper, brandishing it with an arched eyebrow. "Don't you know how long it takes to go dress shopping and then find matching accessories? I can't just wear anything; I'm going with Oliver Queen."
Oliver grabbed the profile out of her hand and smiled, wrapping an arm around her waist, "Well in case you didn't notice in my profile, it says I'm spontaneous. So you're just gonna have to get used to it."
She straightened her glasses, flushed as she smiled up at him.
"Felicity?"
"Mmhmm?"
"I'm glad you're going. I would have been really bored without you to keep it unpredictable," he smirked before leaning in to kiss her.
-The End
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