A big thank you to quisinart4 for helping with that vital scene.

Appreciation to the guests who reviewed and the silent readers.

To Tammy: jealous!Oliver coming right up ;)

To Andy: Digg's a good guy who knows how to handle his two best friends appropriately :) I wasn't too sure I had captured Isabel correctly, so thank you for saying that. Fun fact: your favourite line was basically a last minute edition.

three

Oliver's been acting really strange this week. During a meeting yesterday morning, he was fiddling in his seat, tapping his pen against his empty pad, rocking back on his chair and generating that grating squeaking noise. She would have shot him an annoyed look if he wasn't looking anywhere but at her. On Tuesday afternoon, he and Diggle were in his office having lunch like they normally do when she came in and joined them. Their conversation stopped immediately, and it took her the time from the door to her seat next to Diggle until she broke the heavy silence with a suspicious, "What's up?". Oliver had stammered something about his club sandwich being dry. He was eating a club sandwich.

During the nights they train, he'd only practice with Diggle, and when she'd step onto the mat after Diggle moves off to grab his water bottle, Oliver would say he wants to use the salmon ladder or he needs a break as well. (The second excuse would be fine if he was breaking a sweat at all.) When her phone beeped with a funny text from Barry and she read it out loud to them, he had stated that no phones were allowed on down in the Arrowcave while sharpening his arrows a little too aggressively. Two nights later, Diggle takes a call from Lyla while they were cleaning Arrow's equipment. Oliver didn't say a word.

She wonders if he's mad at her. But then she snorts internally because he's been avoiding her so much recently that she hasn't had a chance to do or say much that would make him mad. Maybe it's that time of the month for him. Or whatever the guy equivalent of that is.

"Tell me I rocked your world last night."

She's one hundred percent sure her face is just as red as Barry's ears.

"I-I mean," he stumbles. "I surprised you with my skills." His eyes fall shut as he groans.

"Your cooking was delicious," she interjects, rescuing him from further embarrassing both her and himself.

"Thank you." He scratches his cheek before reaching for his apple and cherry strudel.

They avoid each other's general direction for a moment before Felicity starts laughing, and not long after Barry joins her.

The cheerful ringing of the bell above the cafe door joins them in their melodious harmony as another hungry customer is captivated by the atmosphere of the cafe.

Her eyes catch a familiar pair of blue eyes and she waves him over, a little too enthusiastically, she thinks, and deflates in embarrassment when his lips twitch in a slight smile. He hesitates for a moment before drawing closer.

"Hello, Mr. Queen," Barry greets cheerfully.

"Barry," Oliver replies curtly, and she moves her bag so he can take the seat next to her. She narrows her eyes at him slightly, sending happy thoughts his way telepathically so he'll be nice.

"So Felicity here tells me you two are friends."

"Mhm."

Barry shoots her an amused look, not at all as disturbed by his behaviour as she is. "Oliver- Can I call you Oliver?"

Oliver's lips curl in a closed-mouth smile. "Mr. Queen is fine."

Felicity's head whips around to shoot him a disapproving glance before smoothing over his rude behaviour. "Mr. Queen is weary of meeting new people; it takes him a while to warm up to them."

"Ah," Barry nods. "Here's an ice breaker: do you have any favourite books, Mr. Queen?"

Oliver glances at her with a frown on his lips and shrugs. "The Velveteen Rabbit held my interest in elementary school."

"Good book," he agrees. "I think my first favourite book was when I studied To Kill a Mockingbird during high school."

She catches Oliver rolling his eyes from the corner of her eye and nudges his foot with hers under the table.

"I love that book!" she chirps in. "Definitely one of my favourites."

Barry shrugs. "Now that I'm older, it's been bumped down on my list. It didn't explore more of the African American characters."

Her jaw drops, insulted. "It's from a child's point of view," she argues incredulously.

"That doesn't matter. Harper Lee-"

"How do you- Ugh! How do you always have the most infuriating views on literature?"

"Why do you always have the most boring and safe opinions?" he shoots back.

"They are not-" Her head rears back when he shushes her with his pointer finger.

He digs into his pocket to pull out his vibrating phone. "I have to get back to work. It's nice to see you again, Mr. Queen." Barry stands up and holds out his arms toward her expectantly.

Bewildered, Felicity rises to her feet and wraps an arm around him. "What are you doing," she mumbles into his shoulder.

"You'll see," he whispers back. "Just thank me later. And don't hit me, but…" he trails off, before pressing a sound kiss to her cheek. "I'll call you later." He winks, a devious smile on his face.

She floats back into her seat in stunned silence and just watches him leave the cafe before blinking back to Oliver. Awkwardness is injected into the quiet that's suffocating between the two. She'd know because she's made a lot of awkward silences fall upon her companions.

"Oliver-"

"Felicity-"

They both break off and then look at each other, smiles uneasy.

He motions for her to speak first.

"I- um, I miss you."

He turns to face forward again, his knee brushing with hers along the way. She watches his profile as he looks down at his hands and takes a deep breath, his whole upper body heaving. The corner of his mouth twitches before he looks back at her. "I miss you too."

It's her turn to look away, and she fiddles with the unused napkin in front of her to unsuccessfully hide her embarrassingly big beam. She feels a familiar burning sensation on the side of her head and reaches up to scratch it.

"You've been spending most of your time with Barry lately." She detects a bitterness in his tone that hauls her gaze back to him.

"We had one date, but when I found out he didn't ship Ross and Rachel, I ended it," she attempts to joke." He doesn't crack a smile. "We just work better as friends." He's not you.

"Can I come over later? To… fix your sink."

"Oh. Um, don't you have any plans? It's date night. Oliver Queen has many a women lining up for his attention."

"I'm not seeing anyone," he supplies.

"Cool. I mean, it's not cool that you're seeing anyone like I don't want you to- But it's not like I don't want to see you lonely- I mean… One, two, three…"

It's the first time she's seen a genuine smile from him in a while, and she's tempted to continue counting just to see if his smile will grow and linger just a little longer.

"What was that?" Felicity demands.

"What was what?" Barry's confused voice oozes through her phone's speakers.

Her free hand jumps to land on her hip as she stares out into her living room from her kitchenette. "Today at the coffee shop."

"Oh." Then he laughs. "How did it go?"

"I'm not sure what you mean." She gathers her bowl of popcorn and can of soda, carefully tucking her phone between her ear and shoulder before balancing her snacks in both hands as she makes her way to her couch.

"Did he say anything?"

"About what?" Now it's Felicity's turn to be confused.

He sighs loudly. "How he loves you. Duh."

"After you left, I told him that I missed him as my friend." She picks some lint off her sweatpants.

"Ooh. Ouch," he winces.

"Shut up. Plus he doesn't even feel that way about me, trust me."

He mumbles something too slurred for her to tell what.

She pulls a face. "What?"

"There are a lot of 'what's in this conversation," he muses.

Her phone beeps and she quickly checks the caller ID. "That's Oliver. I have to go."

"He's calling to tell you he doesn't want to be just friends."

"Goodbye," she states with finality, rolling her eyes to herself as she accepts the call. "Hello?"

"I need you. "

"I'm there."

After weeks of strain between her and Oliver, everything finally seems to be back to normal. She can honestly say that she's mostly content with that as she races out the door, her heart pumping to his words that echo mercilessly in her mind, a beat sounding strangely like I love you, I love you, I love you.

Monday morning, Felicity's settled in front of her desk humming a tune in her head until she stops dead in her tracks when she spots something unfamiliar peeking behind her computer screen. For a second, she panics that it's a bomb and that someone somehow found out she's involved with the Arrow. Upon a closer inspection, she finds an adorable green frog grinning back at her on a coffee mug.

She slowly reaches for the mug with an unsure glance around her desk. She spies a note on the opposite side and twists her head around to read it.

Enjoy.

- O

She smiles.

Thoughts? Any favourite lines maybe?