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Oliver could do this. He could swallow his pride, walk in there, and do it. He could ask her, right? It wasn’t hard. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Well, actually, it kind of was a big deal. If he didn’t march in there and ask her, he’d be screwed. He knew in 60 years, he’d look back on his life and this moment would be what changed everything. Felicity Smoak could change everything.
When Oliver decided to start working at Queen Consolidated a few months ago, he thought he’d be at the top floor with his father. He always assumed he could just start at the top and stay at the top until he started running the company in a few years when his father retired. He’d marry long-time girlfriend Laurel Lance, have a couple kids (not necessarily all of them with Laurel), and run his family’s company. That was his plan and had been since his father asked him to learn the ropes of the company in hopes of him taking over one day.
Oliver would soon learn the hard way that very rarely do things ever go according to plan.
It had been four months since Oliver started the internship, and he had yet to leave the mail room. Months of boring filing and copying and sorting had driven Oliver insane. His father told him he needed to know all facets of the company and in order to do that, he must work his way up. So that started with the mail room.
Robert Queen, everyone.
It had been smooth sailing in the mail room, even though he had been bored out of his mind, until this morning. Oliver had been replying to emails on the company computer down in the mail room when he had sent an email meant for his best friend, Tommy, to his father instead.
So here Oliver was, standing outside the IT Department of Queen Consolidated, completely frozen. If Felicity refused to help him, he didn’t know what he’d do. Oliver had messed up so many times in the last few years that if his father found out about this massive fuck up, that would be it. His father never told him this was his last chance to get his shit together, but Oliver knew. If this job didn’t work out, he’d lose his inheritance and he could say goodbye to all the extravagant parties and the rich lifestyle he was used to.
And that was just unacceptable. Oliver loved his life and he wasn’t willing to give it up because of a stupid email.
He needed to find some way to prevent his father from seeing that email and, according to everyone down in the mail room, Felicity Smoak could make that happen.
~
The humming of computers and the sound of typing always felt like home to Felicity. Her actual home back in Vegas wasn’t that great, so computers had quickly become a safe place for her. They never made fun of her or mocked her and they never made her feel inadequate. Felicity Smoak knew she was good at what she did.
It had been just another day at Queen Consolidated when Oliver Queen showed up at her cubicle asking for help. She didn’t think anything of it when he asked her to delete a certain email he had sent to his father by accident. Things like this happened all the time when people who weren’t good with technology dealt with technology. Don’t even get her started on all the computers she had to do a hard reset on because of porn (pun not intended).
She deleted the email before his father saw it and Oliver thanked her profusely and left and Felicity didn’t think of it again…
Until a week later when Oliver came to her because his laptop freaked out on him while he was catching up on Game of Thrones, so he told her. Felicity wasn’t entirely sure she believed him and was ready to finally use her porn pun when his computer showed it had indeed crashed while he was watching Daenerys’ dragons burn people to a crisp.
He thanked her yet again but with a smile and walked out of her office.
This time, she thought about his smile long after he had left.
~
Oliver was really going to start needing to pay Felicity extra for all the trouble she had to go through because of him. He had need her to delete an email, fix his laptop twice, set up his new cell phone, and ask her how to use the Bluetooth in his car all within two weeks of their first meeting.
She had to think he was an imbecile.
But she never said anything of the sort. She just smiled at him, solved his many problems, and let him be on his way. By the time he needed to ask her about the Bluetooth in his car, he realized he looked forward to seeing her. She was a nice reprieve from the mail room and he convinced himself he only looked forward to their small amount of time together because it was nice to get out of there when he could.
It was a Friday night and Oliver was out with Laurel when he first thought of Felicity outside of Queen Consolidated.
He was at a restaurant for his weekly Friday night date with Laurel when he found himself comparing Laurel’s smile to Felicity’s smile.
He didn’t have sex that night. Or for the next three weeks they dated until Laurel asked him about it and he let it slip that he may have met someone else.
It’s safe to say he didn’t have sex with Laurel ever again.
But, the worst part about the revelation, was he hadn’t even seen Felicity since she showed him how to use his Bluetooth in his car. He thought about spilling a latte on his computer just to see her, but he knew she’d see right through him. He thought about asking her out, but he didn’t even know if she had a boyfriend. Surely someone as brilliant and kind and beautiful as Felicity had a boyfriend… Right?
So here he was, alone on a Friday night for the first time in four years at a Big Belly Burger in the Glades. Tommy was out with some mystery girl and Oliver’s sister, Thea, was out with her boyfriend. He hadn’t bothered asking his parents, because they always had some fancy dinner or fundraiser to be at on a Friday night.
His food had just been placed in front of him when he saw Felicity walk in. She was hard to miss with her blonde hair falling around her shoulders and her bright pink lipstick. Oliver was going to try to appear occupied with his phone when he realized he had left his phone in his car, so that idea went out the window.
As he stared at his food, he could hear her heels approach his booth at the back corner of the restaurant. He could see pandas on her shoes and he smiled, because it seemed like something she would wear.
“Oliver?” He heard her ask tentatively.
He looked up and met her blue eyes, smiling. “Felicity. Hey. What, uh, what are you doing here?”
Oliver cringed as Felicity laughed. They both knew that was lame.
“I mean, uh, would you like to join me?” Oliver continued. Why did she make him so nervous? It was like he was a pre-pubescent kid who had never talked to a woman before. It was different talking to her here in the low light of Big Belly Burger instead of under the florescent lights at Queen Consolidated. It seemed more… intimate.
Before Felicity could give him an answer, a waitress walked up and handed her food she had apparently ordered to go and Felicity thanked her.
“Actually, I was going to go home and catch up on Game of Thrones. Someone reminded me a few weeks ago that I was a bit behind because I was spoiled Daenerys had her dragons when their computer crashed…” Felicity said, smiling at Oliver.
Oliver smiled at her shyly. “Wow. That’s so mean of them! I hope you told them off and told them you couldn’t fix their computer.”
“No, I just uploaded a live camera into their computer that records everything they do.”
Oliver burst out laughing as Felicity set her food on the table, digging her food out of her bag.
It was the best Friday night Oliver had ever had.
A year later, when Oliver proposed to Felicity at the same booth in Big Belly Burger, he told her he knew she would change his life, but he never imagined he would end up wanting to change her last name.