Chapter Text
Felicity hummed to herself as she pulled out a wine glass and sat it on her counter. This day called for at least two glasses of wine, oh hell who was she kidding, she intended to have the whole bottle. Tomorrow was Saturday and she could sleep in.
She tapped on her tablet and smiled, happy to see the program she’d worked so hard on for the last couple weeks was running just as it should. She set the tablet down and popped the cork on one of her favorite red wines. She poured a glass and just as she lifted it to her lips a rumbling sound drew her attention.
She crossed into her living room searching for the sound. She took a sip of wine as she made her way across the room to her purse on the coffee table. She had left her phone in it when she got home, too eager to crack open the bottle of wine.
She rummaged through her purse and pulled out her phone. Her best friend's bright smile lit up the screen, she answered it immediately.
“Laurel!!!”
“Hi, Felicity! How are you doing?” Laurel’s cheerful voice came through the line, it acted as a balm on her frayed nerves.
Felicity hadn't realized just how much she'd missed her best friend until hearing her voice. Laurel and she had been best friends since they were five. Felicity had knocked her down on a playground on accident and after the tears had subsided they’d been together ever since. They shared everything together, even went to the same college, though Laurel had gone into law and Felicity into computer and internet security.
“I’m... you know... I’m me.” Laurel’s hum through the earpiece had Felicity switching gears. Maybe she should try for a cheerier tone. “No, actually, I’m good. Just settling in for the evening. I was about to start in on a bottle of wine. How are you doing?” Felicity ran on as she took a sip of wine and moved to sit on her couch, toeing out of her heels and pushing them under the coffee table.
“I’m doing great. I'm more or less worried about you though. Are you really doing okay?” Laurel’s voice dripped with concern for her.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” Felicity lazed back into the couch and looked at the ceiling.
“Because it’s been three months since Cooper broke off your three-year relationship. Two and a half months since Tommy and I got engaged. I haven’t seen you since our engagement party over a month ago, in which you wore that forced happy face you pull when you want me to believe you have your shit together. But I know you Felicity!” Laurel’s voice had slipped into that bossy annoyed friend tone that Felicity found equal parts annoying and endearing.
Felicity groaned as she pulled herself up to a sitting position, and set her wine glass down on the coffee table. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “I’m fine Laurel, really.”
“I don’t think so. You only avoid attachments when you’re unhappy, like really unhappy. I remember when things went weird between you and that Colin kid in college. You hid away in your bunk for four days and banged out every assignment due through the end of the semester, just because you could. You throw yourself into work which would be fine, but work isn’t going to make you happy forever,” Laurel said softly. “I really want you to be happy sweetie.”
Felicity knew that Laurel was right. It wasn’t Laurel who had stayed away for weeks it was her own doing. She had been conveniently too busy with a work project to go to dinner, or she’d miss a call and make sure to call back during a time when she knew Laurel would be busy with work. Felicity had been avoiding her best friend. It had been harder than she imagined to put on a bright smiling face at their engagement party a month ago. Seeing them so happy just reminded her of how close she’d been to the same thing and failed.
“I know,” she finally answered rubbing her misty eyes before drawing in a deep cleansing breath. She reminded herself that she couldn’t change the past. Running into Cooper just that day had proved that he had moved on. Had it really been three months? Felicity knew deep down that she needed to too. “Laurel, you’re right.”
“Well, of course, I’m right! Sooo… I um… I may have set you up on a blind date,” Laurel said quickly into the phone.
“WHAT?! Laurel, please tell me you’re just playing around!” Felicity growled into the phone.
“I’m not! Don’t you growl at me! Come on Felicity! You aren’t going to find someone sitting at home downing a bottle of wine all by yourself night after night.”
“I don-”
“Don’t lie. You know you can’t lie to me so don’t. It’ll save us both a lot of time,” Laurel stated sternly over the line. Felicity could just imagine that Laurel was standing with her hip cocked to one side, hand placed on her hip.
“Fine, I won’t lie. I hate dating, it’s so tedious,” Felicity whined into the phone. “Why can’t Mr. Right just pop up and say ‘hey here I am!’. I don’t want to go on a blind date Laurel!”
“It’ll be fun, this doesn’t have to be Mr. Right, it’s just supposed to be a fun night out! You gotta have some fun before you meet Mr. Right. Please give this a try?” Laurel argued her case over the phone. Pulling out her lawyering skills, Felicity wrinkled her nose and looked at her phone.
She made a face then pulled the phone back to her ear with a resigned sigh. “Fine, who is he?”
“Yay!!” Laurel squealed in excitement. “It’s Tommy’s best friend Ollie Queen. Tommy says he’s a lot of fun. I haven’t gotten to meet him too many times yet. But oh man, is he ever cute! If I wasn’t totally in love with Tommy...”
“Wait,” Felicity cut off Laurel mid-gush over this said friend. “Is this the best friend that couldn’t even make it to your engagement party?!” Felicity asked warily, already dreading this blind date if she was right about who Laurel had set her up with. She’d heard about this Ollie. He’d gotten sidetracked on the way to the party, another guest had found him and a woman accidentally in a coat closet, half undressed.
“Yes, but-”
“Laurel!”
“But Felicity, this isn’t meant to be a perfect date kind of thing! It’s just a go and have fun kind of thing! You deserve to let loose a little bit!” Laurel stated firmly. “Just a date.”
Felicity groaned and fell back on her couch. “Fine. Fine! When?”
“Tomorrow at seven, he’ll be there to pick you up!”
“Okay. Laurel, if this is a disaster I hold you responsible,” Felicity picked up the glass of wine and downed its contents before standing up to head into the kitchen.
“Understood! I love you Felicity, I just want you to be happy, you need to get out of this slump. Maybe Ollie can help!” Laurel said excitedly and Felicity rolled her eyes, pulling the bottle of wine off the counter. “It’ll be fun! Call me afterward!”
“I love you too Laurel. I’ll let you know how it goes.”
Felicity decided against pouring another glass, she opted for just taking the bottle with her toward her bathroom. The bottle wasn’t going to drink itself and her bath tub needed a visit. If she was going to go on a date she should probably shave her legs.
--F--
The next day once she’d woken from her wine induced hangover she combed through her closet. What does one wear on a date with a cute best friend of the fiance of her own best friend? Felicity thought to herself. A nice pile of dresses and pant suits had accumulated on her bed and bedroom floor before she decided to include Laurel in on the decision.
Finally, two hours before the date they’d decided on a simple black dress with a low back but a high front that stopped just inches from her knees. Simple, elegant and flirty, Laurel’s words. She sat in the tub again soaking away the tension that had built up over picking out a dress for the date. A half hour before he was due, she slipped into a pair of silver heels and waited.
At seven thirty she messaged Laurel to ask if she was sure about the date and time. Laurel messaged her back that Ollie was on his way, he’d had a meeting run late at work. Felicity rolled her eyes and thought about opening a bottle of wine. Grabbing her tablet she started doing a little googling on Ollie Queen, or as she had uncovered, the one and only Oliver Queen. The only son of Robert and Moira Queen of Queen Consolidated. She really doubted he was at work on a Saturday. She opened that bottle of wine.
By eight o’clock she had finished one and a half glasses and had kicked off her heels, sure that he was not coming. After all the information she had been able to dig up on him she was somewhat relieved. She was annoyed about the no show for sure but not completely disappointed. She wasn’t going to have to go on a blind date after all, and that was better than a bad blind date.
At eight thirty she’d decided to finally message Laurel about her failed attempt at a setup when there was a knock at the door. Well okay then! She stepped back into her heels and called out, “Be there in just a second!”
“Okay,” was called back to her through the door.
Felicity smoothed her dress then quickly unlocked the door and pulled it open. A cursory glance at him made her blood start to heat. Laurel had said he was cute. This man before her wasn’t just cute. He was hot. Not even the pictures online had been able to do Oliver Queen justice.
Oliver was ridiculously tall, her eyes having to travel high to look at his face. There was a generous amount of stubble on his strong jaw, blue eyes widened as he took her in as well. She let her own eyes move down over his baseball tee, a small frown slipped onto her lips. The whole ensemble was finished off with jeans and a pair of beaten up sneakers. She would have loved to admire the way his clothes hung on his body except that she was dressed a lot fancier than he was. In his hand he held a bouquet of purple tulips that looked all too familiar.
Annoyance finally settled into her veins and she felt a scowl fall into place on her face.
“Are those from my garden?” she asked snappily.
He turned them and looked at them before sliding his eyes back to hers, a smirk on his lips. “If yours is the one out front then, maybe.”
“So you just pick random flowers…” Felicity crossed her arms in front of her and leveled him with a questioning scowl.
“Well I felt kind of bad that I’m over an hour late and didn’t want to show up empty-handed,” he held them out toward her. “Since they’re yours already…. maybe you’d like to put them in some water?”
Felicity took them from him and shook her head. It was hard to be too annoyed since it should always be the thought that counts, as her mother had taught her. So she let it slide just slightly. She set them on the table just inside her door. “Later maybe. Are you even dressed for our date?”
“Well Tommy said that it was just supposed to be a fun casual date,” he eyed her again and sighed. “But obviously you didn’t get the memo.”
She grinned not kindly, what a great way to kick off their date. She reached into the small bowl on the table, grabbing a hair tie and pulled her hair into a ponytail. “Well, I’m not going to change. I’m hungry. So let’s just go and get this over with Oliver.”
“Actually you can just call me Ollie,” he said as he watched her pull her door closed, locking it. There was no way she was going to call him Ollie. Felicity tucked her clutch under her arm and eyed him. “You’re Felicity right?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh good, I wasn’t totally sure about the address-”
“You mean you were just going to take some random person out?”
“It’s not like I haven’t done it before,” Ollie said with a chuckle as he leads her out toward the curb. Felicity was sure that this was going to be the worst decision of her life.
“Lovely,” she stated as she stopped, looking at the motorcycle in front of her. She looked worriedly at all the familiar cars on the street. That couldn’t be his? “Did you drive?”
“Yeah, of course,” her fears were confirmed as he slung his leg over the body and held a helmet out toward her.
“You’re kidding right?” she started shaking her head, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Oh come on, motorcycles are fun!”
“No way mister, I’m not getting on that. I’m not even dressed for that!” She motioned toward her dress.
“Sure you are, just hike up the skirt and straddle behind my back.”
Felicity felt herself flush at the way he’d just let the words tumble from his mouth. She felt breathless as she backed up a step. “No way am I… no I couldn’t possib- No!” She finished firmly and opened her clutch. “We’ll just take my car.”
She started across her lawn toward her driveway and he hopped off his bike to follow her. The lights flashed and the horn beeped as she unlocked her beloved little red Mini Cooper. She started to pull open the door when she heard him start laughing.
“What?” she snapped angrily. This whole evening was turning into something from the Twilight Zone and she was too hungry to be nice anymore.
“I won’t fit in that thing! Come on, I’ll just take you on my-”
“We will take my car, get in!” Felicity let her loud voice make an appearance.
Oliver looked to think about it for a moment, then smartly opted for rounding the car and slipping into the passenger side. She slid into her own seat and pulled her buckle on. Oliver made a huge production of sliding the seat back, trying to recline the seat, reaching for the safety belt. He grumbled the whole time.
Finally, as the belt clicked into place and she moved to start the car a vibrating sound cut through the quiet. “Oh crud, I have to get this!” Oliver stated, fishing awkwardly into his back pocket.
“Oh hey ba-” Felicity looked at him incredulously, was he going to say baby? “Barb, no I’m actually in the middle of something.” His eyes locked on hers and she swore she could see the sweat start to bead on his forehead before he looked away. “Sure later, I’m not exactly sure how…. okay yeah I’ll call you. Yup, buh bye.”
Felicity had stopped staring at him half way through the conversation. This was supposed to be just a nice simple fun date, to get her back out there. If this was what she had to look forward to then she didn’t want any part of it. Sure Oliver Queen was gorgeous, and she was woman enough to know that he could possibly be really fun in bed but that wasn’t something she wanted. It most definitely didn’t gloss over how tactless he was.
“Sorry about that, we can go now. Unless you’d rather take my bike because this is really cramped.”
“Did you seriously just take a call from another hookup?”
“I uh…”
“Nevermind,” Felicity unbuckled and exited her car. She’d order in Chinese from her favorite place. It wasn’t too late for that. She didn’t even wait for his door to shut before she was walking back up her lawn toward her townhome. She clicked the button to lock her car once she heard him close it.
“Wait where are you going?” Oliver jogged to catch up to her.
“I’m going inside. This is ridiculous!” She said shaking her head. What was Laurel thinking?
“I thought we were going to go eat-”
Felicity spun around and glared at him. “You can go do whatever the hell it is you want to do. I’m not now nor ever will I go get food with you! I don’t know what our best friends thought! We couldn’t be more different and oh so wrong. We couldn’t even make it out of my driveway without me wanting to smack you, why don’t you just go hook up with whoever you were just on the phone with? I’m sure she’s just dying to get to you a little sooner!”
“Wow,” Oliver said and shook his head. “Who knew that Tommy and Laurel could be friends with such a tight ass.”
Felicity spun at that and started up her stairs. She unlocked her door with unshed tears prickling her eyes.
“Hey, shit. I’m sorry!” Oliver said as he started onto her porch.
“Just go, Oliver! It’ll be better to not do this,” Felicity said pushing the door shut behind her. Moments later she heard the muffled sound of his motorcycle starting up.
She kicked her heels off angrily and searched for her phone. Choosing Laurel’s number she waited for the line to ring through, finally switching over to Laurel’s voice mail.
“Hey you’ve reached Laurel, I’m away from my phone or busy with work. Leave me a message I’ll call ya back!”
“Laurel, if I never have to see Oliver Queen again it’ll be too soon! You owe me!” Felicity hung up the phone, tossing it somewhere near her couch before marching into her bedroom. She could live the rest of her life and never see that man again. Pretty or not he was an ass and she didn’t have time for that.