An: I do not own Arrow. To the guests that reviewed. Thank you. :)

August

July had been a busy month but August was supposed to be just as busy. Everyone could see that Donna was growing weaker and more tired so Bob hired a new waitress to help Donna out. Her name was Carol. She was 5'8" tall brunette, with very nice curves. She was equally as popular as Donna with their male clientele. She was also very fond of hitting on Oliver. She would often lean over the bar, giving him a great view of her cleavage and ask him out. Oliver very much appreciated the view but he suspected that sleeping with Carol would complicate things for him at work. Donna didn't seem pleased with the way the young girl threw herself at Oliver and even Felicity seemed to be disappointed in him when he flirted back with Carol. In an effort not to disappoint his roommates, he started rejecting Carol's advances.

Aug-2

Bob had asked Oliver to wait for Miguel to ask him to polish the floors this coming Sunday night. He gave Oliver an envelope with a 50% advance payment so that Miguel could purchase the necessary materials for the job. Felicity took Donna home and told Oliver to call her when he was finished. Digg offered to wait the half hour with Oliver.

Diggle threw a twenty on the bar, "let's have us some Tennessee whiskey. It'll put some hair on your chest."

"I closed down the register for the night," Oliver replied.

"Put it on tomorrow's bill then,"

"Fair enough," Oliver said making a note to remind him to cash it up the next day. He grabbed the bottle and two glasses.

"On the rocks?" he asked the bouncer.

"Neat," Diggle responded.

Oliver poured the drink and handed Diggle his glass. Diggle picked it up and knocked it back in one go, slamming the glass down when he was done. Oliver followed suit as well, relishing in the familiar burn as it made its way down this throat. Despite working in a bar, it had been a while since he had a drink.

"So you got a girl?" Diggle asked

"No, you?"

"A wife actually but we are separated at the moment,"

"I'm sorry to hear that,"

"Nothing to be sorry about. We got married on a tour over there. When we got back stateside things were different. She went back for another tour. It ends in November. She'll be home for thanksgiving and we are supposed to discuss the state of our relationship,"

"The longest faithful relationship I ever had was 6 months," Oliver told him.

"I'm assuming there is a reason you qualified it with faithful?"

"I had one longer but I cheated on her constantly. I don't count that."

"So you've stopped cheating then," Diggle asked him curiously.

"Yes, I never thought I would say this but I'm looking for something different now. I still do the one night stands but I do want something more. I just want to feel a little more settled before I enter into a long term relationship with someone. Right now things are in flux," Oliver told him truthfully.

"The love of a good woman is hard to find," Diggle admitted. "I realise that now. This has been a hard year. I truly miss Lyla, my wife. I know now that I should not let her go. I know we need to fight for a way to make it work here."

Oliver found himself opening up to Diggle, telling him about:

* Laurel – his first attempt at a relationship. The one he cheated on relentlessly,

* Helena – the crazy chick and ironically the first one he didn't cheat on,

* McKenna – the girl that lasted six months. It ended when she broke her hip and had to move away from physical therapy,

* Isabel – A cougar he had been involved with for two months, and

* Sara – Laurel's younger sister, who he dated for five months. Sara eventually ended it because they weren't right for each other. She said he needed someone else. What that meant Oliver had no idea.

The door to the bar opened interrupting them and Miguel walked in followed by his wife and son.

"Buenas Noches," Miguel greeted them.

"Buenas Noches," Oliver answered. He had started picking up Spanish from the few times he had interacted with them.

Juanita, Miguel's wife, was wearing a beautiful Mexican shawl, "that is very beautiful," he told her in Spanish. She thanked him and told him she made it herself. He didn't quite catch the meaning and their son translated for him.

An idea occurred to him.

"Can your mom make one for my sister? I will pay her," he asked. He was supposed to be traveling the world, he needed something exotic to give to Thea.

"Si Senor," Juanita replied.

"Gracias," Oliver responded.

Oliver informed Miguel of Bob's instructions for the bar. When he was done, he and Diggle exited the bar.

"Aren't you going to call Felicity?" Diggle asked.

"It's late, she's tired. I don't want her driving so much. I can run home," Oliver said.

"Dude if you run home she's going to use her loud voice on you and trust me, after being on the receiving end of it once after I messed up her Big Belly Burger order, it's not a nice experience. I'll drop you home."

"You don't have to do that," Oliver said.

Diggle smiled, "just get in the car Oliver,"

Aug-3

When Felicity slumped against the bar one evening ordering a scotch, warning bells went off in Oliver's head and he remembered a conversation he had eavesdropped on last night. Cooper was being a dick as usual. He always waited until ungodly hours of the morning to call Felicity. Personally Oliver thought he was calling her after he cheated on her. The timing made sense when you thought about it from that perspective. The jerk was whining about some code he needed help with and he wanted Felicity to come out there and help him.

"So Asshat giving you trouble?" Oliver asked

"Not you too?" Felicity groaned. Why was it no one like her boyfriend?

"There's probably a reason for that," Oliver commented sagely.

"I said that out loud, didn't I? I swear, he's not that bad," she defended.

"Felicity, I heard everything he said to you last night. Did it ever occur to you that if everyone thinks he's a jerk, then he is a jerk. You know if it quacks like a duck then it is a duck."

Felicity glared at him.

Oliver felt very uncomfortable with her being angry at him, so he decided to mix her a drink. He started showing off a few of the fancy moves he had been practicing. He knew she enjoyed watching him juggle the bottles or throwing the olive into drinks from across the bar. His aim was never off. By the time he was finished, she was smiling at him.

"Now that is the smile I like to see," Oliver commented.

Her eyes twinkled as she took a sip of his new concoction. He had been trying to come up with a signature cocktail for the bar.

"I really like this one," she took another sip, "this could be the one!"

"I'll name it Felicity then," he smiled.

They stared at each other for a moment before Donna called her a way for a minute and he watched her walk away with a dopey smile on his face.

"You know you're the only one she smiles like that for," Diggle commented.

"What?" he asked stupidly.

"And she's the only one that puts that puppy look on your face," he further added.

"I do not have a puppy look on my face," Oliver responded.

"Bro, you need to look in the mirror," he said before walking back to the door.

He ignored Diggle, going back to tending to his bar.

Aug- 4

A few nights later, Felicity sent him and Donna text messages telling them to meet her in the car park when they were finished with work. They both thought it was strange. Felicity always came inside to talk. Oliver had finished up quickly with the bar but Donna was still finalising the tips so he left her behind. He found Felicity crying in the car.

"What's wrong?" he asked jumping in the passenger seat. He had learned to make himself small.

She ducked her head away from him.

"Felicity," he said gently reaching out to take her hand in his, "you can talk to me,"

"I broke up with Cooper,"

"About damn time," Oliver responded.

She lifted her head to glare at him, "you're not helping."

"I don't think he's worth crying over. He treated you terribly. I was fairly sure he was cheating on you,"

"He was cheating on me?" Felicity questioned the tears starting to flow faster.

"You mean you didn't break up with him because of that," Oliver asked.

"No, he said it was a good thing my mom was dying so I could be free of that useless burden and come help him with his projects," she spat out.

Oliver clenched his fist. If he ever met Cooper, he was going to rearrange his face. He jumped out of the car, rounded the front, to the driver's side. He opened the door and dragged Felicity straight into his arms.

"He does not deserve you," Oliver said holding her tight against him.

She cried into his chest. He could feel the sobs as they wracked her body. His shirt started to grow wet but he didn't mind one bit.

"Let it out," he said rubbing her back gently, "tonight should be the only night you shed your precious tears over that scumbag,"

The sound of clicking heels against the pavement drew his attention to Donna. She immediately looked concerned. He mouthed to her that she had broken up with Cooper. Donna gave them a sympathetic smile. She walked around the car, opened the back door, scooted in and then patted the space next to her. He guided Felicity straight into her mother's waiting arms. He squeezed himself into the driver's seat, having moved the seat back to its furthest point to accommodate his legs. Felicity didn't seem to register the lack of foot space in the back seat. Soon they were headed for home but he made a quick detour to Wal-Mart for ice cream and wine. It was going to be a long night.

Aug-5

In the following days, Felicity seemed to recover a little with his help. He had been doing shirtless push-ups in front of the TV when Felicity tripped over one of the sofas because she was too busy staring at him. It was then he knew that she was going to make a full recovery. Her face was bright red and she was trying not to look at his chest.

"Who put that sofa there?" Felicity commented glaring at the offending furniture.

"It has always been there Felicity," Oliver laughed.

She turned even redder, her eyes trying to look everywhere but at him. Oliver decided to take it easy on her, "I'm going for my morning run, the coffee is already made for you. Do you need anything at the store?"

She shook her head and disappeared into the kitchen.

Oliver usually varied his routine and the length of his runs but he found he had more energy to burn off this morning, the image of a flustered Felicity seemed to be driving him forward. Usually he would run in one direction for six blocks and then come back down an adjacent street but instead he decided to double back the way he came and then come back down to make the run down the adjacent street. In doubling back he ran into Diggle.

"Digg!" he said surprised to see the other man.

"Oh hey Oliver, fancy meeting you out here," Diggle said nonchalantly.

"We live a few blocks away. The apartment building that's on the corner of Cactus Lane," Oliver said. "How come you're out here too?"

"It really is a small world Oliver, I live on Cactus Lane too," Diggle said.

Oliver laughed. It turned out that Diggle was renting an apartment five buildings down from where he and Felicity were. Diggle joined him for the rest of his run.

Aug-6

At three o'clock in the morning he got an angry text message from his sister telling him that she had been grounded for coming home late. She thought it was entirely unfair that he got to travel the world and she had to be home by 8pm each night. He reminded her that she was only 17. He told her she didn't need to rush her life. She had plenty of time to enjoy it but she needed to focus on school first. He saw what a lack of education had done for Carl. He didn't want his sister to be like that. He didn't want her to become a sponge that fed off of society. Ironically, he realised that was exactly what he had been to his parents, a sponge that fed off of their wealth. None of it he had earned.

Aug-7

Oliver had a few ideas to improve the bar. He nervously approached Bob one morning. He had written up a whole proposal complete with budget estimates and cash flow projections for implementing his ideas. It was the first time he had ever worked so hard on something in his life and he was proud of his proposal. He had put more effort into it than his cumulative six years at college. It was the first time he was putting some of the principals that he had supposedly learnt at college to practical use. After two months working at the bar, Oliver realised that Bob was barely breaking even. He needed more customers to come in during the week so Oliver devised a plan to get the some of the tourists off the strip and into their bar.

Bob had listened to everything he said but the old man was hesitant to try his ideas. He said he needed some time to think about it. Oliver was disappointed at first but Felicity helped him realise that the bar was Bob's life. Changes needed to be introduced to him slowly. She was positive Bob would come around eventually. She encouraged Oliver to take baby steps, to slowly show Bob that some changes could be good.

Aug -8

Oliver had convinced Felicity to take Donna out in the morning so that he could prepare a special lunch for her. He had finally mastered the Chicken Cordon Bleu and was ready to serve Donna a meal worthy of her. Since he wasn't paying rent, he sank his money into buying the best ingredients to cook for them. All of the produce was fresh and the chicken was free-range chicken grown without hormones. He bought a bouquet of bright flowers to use as a centrepiece for the table. He had taken out Donna's best plates and cutlery to lay the table. Felicity sent him a text message when they were five minutes away and Oliver quickly plated the food and placed it on the table.

He stepped outside the apartment to wait for them. When Donna came up, Oliver blindfolded her and led her inside.

"What is that delicious smell?" she asked.

He led her to the table and removed the blindfold. Felicity stood ready at the side with both her camera phone and her tablet set up recording. Donna's face went slack with shock, her hands flying to her face as she took in the scene before her. Tears started to slide down her face.

"You hate it?" Oliver asked fearfully.

"I love it Oliver! No one has ever put this much effort into doing something for me," Donna admitted hugging him. Oliver tried not to think about how weak her hug was.

Donna ate with gusto, loving every bite. Her happiness made Felicity smile, which in turn made him happy. It felt great to genuinely do something for someone. He found it hard to believe that no one had ever appreciated Donna. She was such a joy to be around. He sincerely hoped that Felicity never settled for anyone that mistreated her. Felicity deserved the world and Oliver was going to make sure she found someone to give it to her.

Aug-9

Donna's health started to really decline at the end of August and she was leaving the bar by 8pm. Diggle was dropping Oliver home. He didn't mind running home but Diggle insisted that since he was on the way it was not a problem. When the dark circles started to take up permanent residence under Felicity's eyes. Oliver decided to take over all the driving. He was afraid she might fall asleep behind the wheel one night. He longed for his sleek BMW parked in the Queen mansion but he had to be grateful for what he had. He could just have easily been a male prostitute at the side of the road living day to day.

Four months into the challenge and Oliver found he was very much dreading September.