#//Well; she does love a good healthy wager/competition to get in the mood; if they wanna top her so bad; they should try & aim for the gold

[dutybcrne]

Cloud Retainer will act so formal and put together, but. In a romantic relationship, there will be. A Notable increase in how affectionate she is to her person.

[jamaninja]

Olicity fanfic: Fifty bucks says, Chapter 2

Word count: 8,785 Rating: Teen Chapters: 2/3 Summary: Turns out, Tommy, Digg and Thea are a little bit more competitive than is strictly healthy. Then again, hundreds of dollars are on the line, so...

Author’s note: Y'all, the response to this story has blown me away! I had the warm and fuzzies for days because of your kind comments.

Also, it's my birthday today! So to celebrate, I made this chapter a little bit longer. :) Hope you enjoy it!

Read on: AO3 | ff.net

Chapter 2

Nine months

The thing about being in a group wager with hundreds of dollars on the line means that anything goes.

What’s that saying? All’s fair in love and war?

Well this just happened to be both.

“I don’t know about this, Tommy,” McKenna said as she and Tommy walked up to Oliver’s apartment. “I mean, I wasn’t invited.”

“I invited you,” he reminded her. “Besides, Ollie will be excited to see you. It’s been a long time.” Tommy grinned a little and leaned forward to whisper, “Don’t tell him I told you this, but he used to have a huge crush on you in high school.”

McKenna’s eyes widened. “No he didn’t. Oliver Queen? The Oliver Queen?”

“Yes he did!” Tommy winked. “So trust me when I tell you, you have nothing to worry about.”

“But wait,” she called out, grabbing Tommy’s shoulder to stop him from knocking. “Didn’t you say he’s living with someone? A girl?”

Tommy waved a dismissive hand. “Yeah, but it’s totally platonic. They’re just living together as roommates. Nothing going on between the two of them.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Seriously? You’re telling me that Oliver Queen is platonically living with some woman? Are you sure we’re talking about the same Oliver Queen?”

He turned to McKenna and put his hands on her shoulders. “McKenna, trust me: there is absolutely nothing going on between Felicity and Oliver. You are more than free to flirt with the man. In fact, I encourage it.”

She still looked like she wasn’t quite sure of the whole situation, but she didn’t say anything further. So Tommy took that as an invitation to finally knock on the door.

“Just smile,” he told her. “Smile and be yourself. You’ve got a winning personality, Mac.”

“I’m going to punch you in the face, Tommy Merlyn,” she hissed under her breath.

The door swung open a second later and revealed Felicity in a lovely royal blue cocktail dress and black heels. Her hair was down from its customary ponytail the ends of her golden waves dipping just below her shoulders.

Her painted pink lips spread into a smile and her blue eyes lightened from behind her glasses. “Tommy!” she greeted happily as she stepped forward to give him a hug. “We’re so glad you could make it!”

Tommy smiled and hugged her back. “Of course I made it,” he quipped. “I wasn’t about to pass up on an opportunity to make Ollie cook for me.” When he let her go, he gestured to the woman standing next to him. “And this is McKenna Hall. She went to high school with Ollie and me. Mac, this is Felicity Smoak, Ollie’s roommate.”

“Hi,” Felicity said with a bright smile and a proffered hand. “It’s really nice to meet you.”

“You too,” McKenna said with a nervous smile. “I’m sorry about crashing your dinner party, by the way. Tommy invited me last minute and he said it would be OK.”

“Of course it’s OK! Any friend of Tommy and Oliver’s is always welcome here,” she insisted as she stepped back from the door. “Come on in.”

“Thank you,” McKenna said a little shyly. “I love your dress, by the way. That is a gorgeous color on you.”

Felicity’s grin widened as she took their coats. “Thank you so much. You are the sweetest.”

Tommy and McKenna stepped into the apartment, to see that everyone else had already arrived. Digg was sitting on the loveseat with his wife, Lyla. Thea and Roy, a member of Oliver’s kitchen staff, were sitting on the couch, and the four of them were talking and laughing while holding glasses of wine.

Meanwhile, the sounds from the kitchen made it apparent where Oliver was. And just what kind of mood he was in.

“I see that Roy is here,” Tommy muttered under his breath to Felicity.

She smirked. “Yeah. But at least Oliver’s taking it out on the cutting board. So maybe there’s hope for his growth after all.”

As Felicity went to go hang their coats in the closet, Tommy stepped toward the living room with his hand at McKenna’s shoulder.

“Hey, guys. This is McKenna Hall. McKenna, that’s John Diggle, Lyla Michaels, Roy Harper, and you already know Thea Queen.”

“Mac!” Thea beamed as she got up the couch to hug the other woman. “Oh my goodness, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you! How are you?”

McKenna grinned as Thea led her back to the couch. “I’m good. It’s really great to see you guys again. You’ve turned into such a grownup, Thea!”

“Mac here used to babysit me when she and Ollie were in high school,” Thea told everyone in the living room. “I adored her. I used to follow her around everywhere.”

“That’s so sweet,” Felicity smiled as she walked toward the living room with two glasses of wine she handed to Tommy and McKenna. “When was the last time you all were together?”

“I don’t know,” McKenna admitted. “It’s been so long. I think it might have been graduation?”

“Well that is far too long,” Tommy declared. Then he raised his wineglass toward everyone in the living room and called out, “To reunions.”

Everyone else followed suit and took a sip of their wine.

“So,” Thea began, turning to McKenna. “What have you been up to since high school?”

“Uh, well the usual,” she said. “College, then police academy...I graduated last month, actually. Now I’m a beat cop with SCPD.”

“Wow,” Felicity intoned, her eyes wide and admiring behind her glasses. “That’s so cool.”

McKenna’s smile slowly grew less nervous and more genuine. “Yeah, I guess it is. I like it a lot. Mostly a lot of citation writing so far, but my officers say I have a real future at the department. I really want to be a detective one day.”

Felicity was about to open her mouth to say something, but Oliver chose that moment to pop out of the kitchen into the living room.

“Felicity, I — ”

The presence of a new person in his apartment stopped his words in his mouth. His eyes widened and recognition flashed across them.

“McKenna Hall?” he said in disbelief as he took a step forward. “Is that you?”

McKenna’s lovely tan skin darkened with a faint blush as she stood up to greet her old friend. “Ollie,” she smiled, her arms wide open in a hug. “It’s so good to see you again.”

“Wow,” Oliver answered as he stepped into her embrace. “It’s good to see you, too. You look great, by the way. I mean, you always looked great. You just...well, I guess the years really worked for you.”

Tommy smirked into his wineglass. This plan was going much smoother than he anticipated.

McKenna grinned in obvious pleasure. “Thank you. I could say the same for you. I really like your new hairstyle. It suits you much better than that long hair you were sporting for the longest time. Makes you look more mature and rugged.”

“Well that was what I was going for,” he joked.

Felicity’s eyebrows shot up her forehead before she cleared her throat. “Uh, Oliver? Did you need me for something?”

Oliver tore his gaze away from his old friend and turned back to Felicity with a start, like he just realized that she was there. “Uh, right. Right! Yeah, I did. I, um, need your help in the kitchen with something. Could you lend me a hand?”

She frowned. “You’re asking my help? Seriously? Normally you don’t let me set foot in your kitchen.”

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

With a roll of her eyes, she leaned forward to set her wineglass down and get up from her seat.

“Um, I could help, too?” McKenna said as she stepped forward and Tommy had to stop himself from fist pumping in triumph. “I’m kind of an unexpected addition. The least I can do is help.”

Ollie looked clearly pleased with her offer. “You don’t mind?”

“Not at all,” McKenna smiled.

“Oh, great! Thank you, because Felicity’s a complete disaster in the kitchen.”

Tommy smirked as he watched Felicity’s expression turned into a scowl, but she didn’t say anything. She just followed the two of them into the kitchen.

Once the three of them were gone, Digg and Thea both turned to shoot suspicious glares at Tommy, who all of a sudden was struggling to look as innocent as possible.

“What?” he asked.

“McKenna? Seriously?”

Thea Queen was the only person Tommy knew who could make a name sound like an accusation.

“What?” he repeated. “She’s an old friend!”

“My ass!” Digg hissed. “You’re trying to throw the bet!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he scoffed. “I’m not doing anything to throw the bet. I just thought that Ollie and McKenna would like to reconnect after so many years, and it turns out I was right.”

“Oh, you are so full of shit!” Thea rolled her eyes.

Roy looked between the three of them in confusion. “Hold on, I think I missed something. What’s happening here?”

Thea turned to her boyfriend. “My brother’s in love with his roommate — ”

“Correction,” Tommy interrupted. “Felicity’s in love with your brother.”

Thea rolled her eyes and continued. “OK, Digg thinks Ollie’s in love with Felicity but she doesn’t feel the same way, and he bet us fifty bucks that he makes a move on her and she turns him down. But Tommy thinks that Felicity’s in love with Ollie but he doesn’t feel the same way, and he bet us one hundred bucks that she’ll tell him and he’ll be too scared and run away.”

Roy’s eyes widened in understanding. “So you,” he pointed at Tommy, “brought McKenna to flirt with Oliver to make Felicity jealous and force her to make a move.”

“I did no such thing,” Tommy smirked.

“You’re a dirty liar, Merlyn,” Digg scowled.

“What does it matter to you?” he shot back. “You’re the one who thinks Felicity doesn’t feel anything for Ollie! If you’re right, then it won’t matter, will it?”

“So you are trying to throw the bet!” Thea pointed at him accusingly.

Tommy rolled his eyes. “Fine, whatever. But if either of you thought I was going to pass up an opportunity to trick you two fools out of a hundred bucks, then you were sorely mistaken. May I also point out to Mr. Diggle that Ollie and Mac are hitting it off beautifully, thus proving my point that he feels nothing for his roommate.”

Digg narrowed her eyes. “Oh. So you want to play it like that, huh?”

Thea shook his head. “You just opened up a whole new can of worms, Tommy. You better get ready.”

He smirked as he took a sip of his wine. “Bring it on.”

Lyla chose that moment to interject.

“So wait a minute,” she insisted. “If Tommy’s line is that Felicity’s in love with Oliver and Johnny’s line is that Oliver’s in love with Felicity…”

She turned to Thea.

“What’s your line?”

“That they’re both in love with each other and they’ll end up together and live happily ever after,” she answered with a sniff.

Digg and Tommy both rolled their eyes. Thea had proven over and over again that she had a good head for business, but in this instance, Tommy seriously questioned her judgment.

“This isn’t a Disney movie, Thea, this is Oliver Queen’s love life,” he reminded her.

She fixed him with a withering glare. “I’m aware of that, Tommy. I just happen to have more faith in my brother than you do.”

He sighed. Thea was entitled to her own opinion, but at this point he just started to feel bad for taking her money so easily.

Ten minutes later, McKenna, Oliver and Felicity emerged from the kitchen and walked toward the dining room, each bearing serving plates and bowls of food. Tommy smiled to himself as he saw McKenna and Oliver laughing together about something while Felicity’s brightly painted lips thinned into a grim line.

“Dinner’s ready,” Oliver called. “Come on, the sooner we’re all seated, the sooner we can dig in.”

The five other guests got up from their seats and made for the dining room, which was laid out beautifully with a huge hunk of pot roast, sauteed green beans and Digg’s favorite maple-glazed carrots.

“This looks incredible,” Lyla said with wide eyes as she sat down to the magnificent feast. “I think I might have to hire you to cook my next Thanksgiving meal, Oliver.”

He shot Lyla a proud smile as he took his seat at the head of the table. Tommy gently directed McKenna to take the seat right next to Oliver’s, while Tommy claimed the seat on her other side.

“Did you really cook all of this?” McKenna asked with an impressed voice.

He chuckled. “Why do you sound so surprised?”

McKenna laughed, warm and soft. “Well it doesn’t exactly jive with the Ollie Queen I remember from high school, you know? You were always too busy getting into trouble to pay attention to anything in home ec class.”

Oliver chuckled. “Oh, I still got into plenty of trouble in culinary school. It was just a different kind of trouble.”

“Oh really?” McKenna said, a definite flirtatious note entering her tone. “And praytell, what kind of trouble was that?”

“The kind that left me without eyebrows for a month,” he joked. “My first attempt at flambe didn’t go all that well.”

McKenna threw her head back and laughed. Out of the corner of Tommy’s eye, he could see Felicity on the other end of the table, keeping her eyes focused solely on her carrots and refusing to look up.

“I wish you’d taken pictures,” Thea piped up.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Oliver will find a way to burn his eyebrows off when we open the restaurant,” Digg chuckled into his wine.

McKenna cocked her head to the side as she looked between Digg and Oliver. “You guys are opening a restaurant?”

“The four of us are,” Tommy told her, pointing between himself, Thea, Digg and Oliver. “Roy here’s on the kitchen staff, and Lyla’s mostly been keeping Digg sane while he goes through all the craziness of the opening. And of course, we can’t forget our tech genius, Felicity. She built our POS system and our inventory programs from scratch.”

“That’s so incredible,” she said. “No offense, Ollie, but I don’t think any of our graduating class would have expected this. I think we all kind of thought you were still dicking around and peeing on cop cars.”

If it hadn’t disappeared as quickly as it came, Tommy would have sworn that he imagined it, but the minute those words left McKenna’s lips, a flash of regret and disappointment flickered in Oliver’s eyes.

But before Tommy could take a second look, someone interrupted him from the other end of the table.

“Oliver’s an excellent chef,” Felicity told McKenna, her tone just a titch cooler than it had been earlier. “He’s one of the best chefs on the West Coast.”

McKenna turned back to the man in question, whose charming grin had come back. “Is that so?”

He shrugged modestly. “I think that’s an exaggeration. But my mentors said I have promise.”

Tommy saw out of the corner of his eye that Felicity’s knuckles had gone white as she gripped her fork, but he hid his smile behind his wineglass.

“So when does this restaurant open?” McKenna asked. “And can I reserve a table for opening night? Or will there be some insanely long waiting list to even get in?”

“Oh, I’m sure we can work something out,” Oliver told her with a wink.

Tommy glanced down at the other end of the table to see Felicity surreptitiously rolling her eyes, and it was all he could do to keep himself from cackling.

The rest of the dinner party went by without incident. After dessert and coffee, McKenna announced that she had to duck out the rest of the evening’s festivities.

“Since I’m a rookie, I still have to work the early shift,” she told her companions with a grimace. “But I’m so glad I came. It was the best food and company I’ve had in a long time.”

“Yeah, it was great to meet you,” Digg answered with a polite smile. “When Merlyn was the one who invited you, I have to admit I was pretty skeptical. But I guess he doesn’t associate with just troublemakers.”

Tommy scowled at the insinuation but everyone else at the table laughed.

Then she turned to Oliver with a coy smile. “And it was really nice to get to reconnect with you, Ollie.”

“Same here, Mac,” he grinned. “It’s good to see you doing so well with your life. Would you like me to walk you out?”

“I would love that.”

The two of them got up from the table and walked out of the living room toward the front door. Once Oliver shut it behind him, Felicity downed the rest of her wine.

“I’m going to get the dishes started,” she announced in a strained voice, as she got up and brought her plate and glass with her.

Tommy shot a smirk at Digg and Thea who both rolled their eyes. “I’ll help,” he announced, grabbing his own plate and glass and following her into the kitchen.

When he crossed the threshold, he saw her standing in front of the sink. The stiffness in her shoulders hinted just what kind of mood she was in.

“You OK, Lis?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she answered, not bothering to turn around and look at him. “I’m fine.”

“Liar,” he smirked as he set the plate and glass down and leaned on the counter next to her. “You’re bothered about something, so let me guess...Ollie and McKenna?”

She flinched, like the accusation he lobbed at her was a tangible object that hit her square in the back.

“No,” she said, though her stormy expression belied the truth. “What would make you think that?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Tommy tapped his chin, pretending like he was thinking hard. “Probably because you’d start chugging your wine every time they flirted at dinner. And you looked like you needed something much stronger than wine every time he laughed at something she’d say.”

Her jaw clenched as she took the sponge and started scrubbing out one of Oliver’s pots. “I wasn’t...look, it’s not like that, OK?”

“Not like what?” he asked, feigning ignorance.

“It’s not like what you’re implying. I’m not...I’m not jealous,” she scoffed. “I’m hardly jealous.”

What a terrible liar, he thought.

“If it’s not jealousy, then what is it?”

Felicity’s expression fell slightly as she looked down at the soapy pot in her hands. “It’s just...when she made that crack about Oliver being a troublemaker in high school and how she thought he’d still be dicking around, I felt so...so angry.”

Of all the answers Tommy expected, it certainly wasn’t that one.

“I know that it’s been forever since she’s seen him, so I’m not being entirely fair to her,” she continued, her eyes still on the sink. “But he’s changed so much. He’s not that guy anymore. He’s different. He’s actually working so hard to make something of himself, and he’s kind and generous to everyone in his life, even the people who expect the worst of him. And I just get...I get so upset and defensive when people judge him for the person he used to be and not the person he is now.”

For the first time that evening, Tommy felt genuinely shocked.

Felicity didn’t just have feelings for his best friend. She was straight up in love with him. And she had every right to be in love with him, because she genuinely knew him.

“But whatever,” she sighed. “If they start dating, she’ll find out pretty soon that he’s changed. It’s kind of hard to miss.”

And for the second time in less than ten seconds, she’d thrown him for a loop.

“Wait,” he objected. “You’re just going to let him date her?”

Felicity shot him a confused look. “What are you talking about? I’m not ‘letting’ him do anything. Oliver Queen is his own person and he can date whoever he wants. I have no say in that.”

He sputtered. “But you’re not, like — you’re not going to tell him how you feel? You’re just going to let him date McKenna while you’re off to the side, pining for him?”

The blood rushed to her cheeks, but she tried to hide her embarrassment with a roll of her eyes. “Excuse me,” she huffed, “I do not pine.”

“You know what I mean,” he insisted.

She avoided answering for a long time as she scrubbed the pot completely clean. When she was finally finished, she looked up with a sad smile and a shrug.

“You’ve known him your entire life. In high school, do you think Oliver would have given me a second look?”

The pained expression on Tommy’s face was her answer.

“Exactly. And no matter how much Oliver’s changed, I’m pretty sure that part of him hasn’t.”

One year

It was officially three months until Verdant’s grand opening, and all the pieces were falling into place.

To be honest, John expected the last few weeks to be just as hectic as all the other ones leading up to it. But much to his pleasant surprise, it all looked like smooth sailing. The kitchen was already up and running. The decorators just had to put the final touches on the dining room. And he was already developing a very close relationship with all their vendors.

All in all, it was all coming together very nicely and the four business partners felt like they could finally breathe, for once.

They were long overdue for an easy stretch, anyway.

Since most everything had been taken care of, the only task John had left was to come up with the cocktail menu for the grand opening. And since Oliver was the chef, John thought it was best to have his friend be the one to taste test all of the ideas he came up with.

And if Oliver ended up drunk at the end of the night and letting some things slip when he came home to his adorable roommate...well, then that wasn’t John’s fault, now was it?

It’s like Lyla always says: sometimes alcohol isn’t a social lubricant. Sometimes it’s a social laxative.

“All right, I’m thinking of calling this the Verdant Special,” John said as he set down an old-fashioned glass filled to the brim with an alarmingly green drink. “It’s muddled cucumbers, mint and sugar with gin, Midori and a touch of soda water.”

Oliver took a sip through the cocktail straw and immediately made a face.

“God, if that was any sweeter, I’d need a shot of insulin,” he grimaced.

John chuckled. “Well that was what I was going for. If they can’t taste the alcohol, they’ll order more drinks. And we know that most of the profits are going to be from beverages.”

Oliver shook his head and pushed the glass away from him. “Maybe girls like Thea will like it, but it’s definitely not my thing.”

John just shrugged and sucked down the remainder of the drink. “Suit yourself.”

Oliver watched half in awe as his friend drank the rest of it without so much as flinching. “I will never understand people who can tolerate that much sugar.”

John chuckled. “It’s a gift. OK, so this next one isn’t as sweet. It’s a grapefruit gin fizz.”

The gin fizz was far more tolerable and Oliver ended up finishing the whole thing with a nod of his head.

“I could see like a bachelorette party coming to the restaurant just for these,” he said. “They’d order up like six of these and keep them coming until they all get sloppy.”

“Just the kind of clientele we’re looking for,” John deadpanned.

“Turn your nose up all you want, but Tommy said we’ve already got three bachelorette parties booked in the spring, and we haven’t even opened yet.”

John shook his head as he got to work mixing the next drink. “Oliver, you wanted to open a restaurant because you wanted to chase your vision of a perfect dining experience. This place is supposed to be about your creative abilities, not a go-to party destination for the idle rich and drunk.”

He sighed. “I know. But at the moment, the whole city still thinks I’m a drunk playboy partygoer, and they expect this restaurant to be like that. Until we’re open long enough to change their minds, we’re probably going to get a lot of bachelor and bachelorette parties breezing through here.”

It was John’s turn to sigh. “Well, I guess it could be worse.”

“That’s the spirit.”

John poured a golden amber liquid from his shaker over a lowball with a giant square ice cube. “Weren’t you the same guy who was freaking out about your playboy reputation six months ago? What the heck changed since then?”

Oliver shrugged as he took the drink from his friend. “I don’t know. I guess I realized I spent years building up my reputation and it’s going to take an equally long time to get rid of it. That’s what Felicity said, anyway.”

Score. The perfect segue.

“What Felicity said, huh?” John asked slyly.

He nodded as he took a sip of his drink. “This one’s good. Not too sweet and not too bitter.”

John made a note and returned to the subject at hand. “So how are things going between you and Felicity? You two still living peacefully together?”

Oliver nodded. “Yeah. She’s a great roommate, always has been. You know we’re coming up on a year since she moved in?”

He chuckled. “A whole year of putting up with your bullshit? She deserves some kind of award. The poor woman must have the patience of Mother Theresa.”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “I’m not that bad,” he insisted.

“I’m sure she would say differently.”

He just shook his head and went back to his drink. “I was actually thinking of making a special dinner to mark the occasion. Like a roommate anniversary or something.”

Jesus Christ, John thought to himself. He wanted to smack his own head against a concrete wall. Or maybe smack Oliver’s head against a concrete wall.

“A roommate anniversary? Is that even a thing?”

“Sure. Why not? People have anniversaries for all sorts of dumb shit.”

John shook his head as he started mixing the next cocktail. Time to go all in.

“Hate to break it to you, man, but people usually reserve anniversaries for significant others. Unless you finally decide to quit lying to yourself and everyone else around you about your not-so-platonic feelings for your roommate, an anniversary celebration is going to look weird.”

Oliver’s jaw clenched and his fist tightened around his cocktail glass.

“You’re wrong,” he said stiffly.

John smirked. “I have not usually found that to be the case. But just out of curiosity, what am I supposed to be wrong about?”

Oliver looked away. “I don’t...I can’t have feelings for Felicity.”

That made him quirk an eyebrow. “Oh? And why not?”

“Because if I did, then she’d move out. And I...I need her to stay.”

John poured the next drink and eyed his friend curiously. “For her rent contribution?”

“No, it’s not just that. It’s...I need her to stay because she’s the first person I’ve met outside the three of you guys who believes in me.”

The minute the glass was full, Oliver took it and knocked the entire thing back. He didn’t bother giving John any time to explain it or even tell him what was in it.

That sent John’s eyebrows sky high.

“You know the other day, she was packing her lunch to take to work and she just reached into the fridge for this tub of leftovers from the dinner I’d made myself the other night and put it in her bag without even checking to see what it was. It was a new dish I’d wanted to try and I was almost one hundred percent sure she’d never had it before. When I warned her that it was new and she might not like it, she just waved it away all nonchalant and said, ‘You made it, Oliver. I’m not worried.’”

John watched as his friend’s eyes got softer and a little wistful as he told his story. The longing was plain on his face, and anyone else who could have been privy to the sight would have agreed: he was in love.

“She just has...she just has this faith in me,” Oliver continued as he ran his fingertip over the rim of his empty glass. “It’s unconditional. She doesn’t have contingencies. She doesn’t make backup plans. She...she supports me without question, like she knows that I’ll do the right thing no matter what. And I’ve never had that before.”

Listening to his confession hit John harder than he cared to admit, and he could feel a faint stinging in the back of his eyes. So he tried to wave away his emotions with some humor.

“If you’re trying to convince me you don’t have feelings for her, you’re doing a really miserable job,” he joked.

Oliver didn’t say anything as he looked down at the slowly melting ice cube in his glass.

John tried again.

“Look, I get that you don’t want her to move out. But what makes you think she would if you told her how you felt? You never know,” he said as he crossed his fingers underneath the bar, “she might feel the same way.”

Oliver scoffed and shook his head. “She doesn’t. There’s no way in a million years.”

“Why not?” John pressed.

“Have you met her, Digg? She’s a genius. A literal, certifiable genius. She’s got a zillion IQ points on the both of of us combined. She’s way too smart to date some billionaire playboy who dropped out of four different colleges he only got into in the first place because his parents bribed the admissions officers.”

God, this whole taste testing session was turning into a gigantic bummer.

“Oliver, you’re contradicting yourself at this point. You just told me that she has an unconditional and unwavering faith in you. That doesn’t sound like the kind of person who sees you as a former frat boy who couldn’t get his shit together.”

He poured another drink and Oliver once again took it without bothering to ask what was in it.

“What could I possibly offer her?” he said with a miserable expression. “She’ll come home from work and she’ll tell me about her day and the shit she says just goes right over my head. I can’t keep up with any of it. Most of the time i just nod my head and pretend like I understand her all while I’m praying that she doesn’t ask me too many questions. I couldn’t keep up with her.”

John shook his head.

“Do you think for a second she can keep up with you whenever you start to talk about cooking techniques? Or when you get way too excited about whatever ingredient you found at the grocery store that’s native to Southeastern Asia? We all have our areas of expertise that other people don’t understand. And none of that is a reason for you to keep your feelings to yourself.”

Oliver gazed contemplatively into his glass before taking a huge swig. After a long, thoughtful silence, he finally said, “I’m thinking of making a prime rib for our anniversary dinner. I figure it can’t hurt to go with the classics.”

He sighed.

John had Oliver try the last two drinks he had on his first draft of the cocktail menu and by then, the billionaire scion was more than a little sauced. With a chuckle and a shake of his head, the former soldier escorted his friend to his car to drive him home.

When they got back to Oliver’s apartment, John opened the door to find Felicity curled up on the couch in her pajamas with a bowl of popcorn nestled in her lap.

“Oliver? John?” she called when she looked up to see the two of them.

Her roommate giggled as he stumbled over the threshold. “Hey, F’licity,” he said, barreling through the syllables of her name the same way he barreled through the room to join her on the couch.

“He might have had one too many during the taste testing tonight,” John warned her.

Felicity’s eyes went from questioning surprise to amusement. “Ahh, OK.”

“What are you still doing up, F’licity?” Oliver asked as he plopped down on the cushion next to her. “I thought you’d be asleep by now.”

John walked to the kitchen for a bottle of water as a cover to surreptitiously listen to their conversation. This was it, he thought to himself. He was drunk. All his inhibitions were down, and he’d also planted the seed in Oliver’s head just hours ago.

He was about to win the bet.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Felicity answered. He could practically hear her shrug.

“Why not?” Oliver asked.

“I don’t sleep well when I don’t know where you are,” she answered. “I mean, I knew where you were tonight, but I also knew it involved alcohol and that had me worried. I just wanted to know that you were OK.”

She said it in a nonchalant voice, and John was pretty sure she was also munching on popcorn as she was saying it. It just tumbled out of her mouth, like what she was saying wasn’t even that big a deal.

But he knew that to Oliver, it meant everything.

“Felicity…”

Oliver’s voice softened and John had to really strain to hear him.

“I...you’re…”

Silence reigned over the apartment for a long stretch of time, and the tension was killing John. So as quietly as he could, he walked toward the wall separating the kitchen and the living room and peeked around the corner.

Felicity was sitting on the couch, her body facing the television but her head turned to look at Oliver. But Oliver’s entire body was angled toward hers, his eyes boring into hers. His hand hovered over her cheek, as if he was battling with his drunk brain to decide whether it was OK to touch her face.

And their lips were just inches away.

John could feel the anticipation coiling in his stomach.

“You’re remarkable,” Oliver murmured.

Felicity blinked a couple of times, like she couldn’t quite connect what he was saying. Then, just when John felt like he was about to burst with all the tension, she turned away with a slight shake of her head and a little chuckle.

“And you’re drunk,” she said wryly as she put the bowl of popcorn down on the coffee table and got up from the couch. Then she motioned to him to get up and follow her. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”

John hung his head. Goddamn it! It was so close! He was just inches away from winning the bet, but Felicity’s nonchalance had gotten in the way!

“I’m not that drunk,” he muttered. But got up and followed her anyway.

“Uh huh,” she said skeptically. Then she called out, “Digg? Just how much did he have tonight?”

“Seven drinks,” he answered her, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. “All within a two hour timespan.”

That made Felicity chuckle. “Not drunk my ass. Go brush your teeth and I’ll force some water down your throat and an aspirin to help head off the hangover.”

Oliver grumbled something under his breath, but did as he was directed.

Felicity joined John in the kitchen a few seconds later. “Did you at least manage to come up with a drink menu?”

“Not a final one, but I’m closer,” he smiled. “It wasn’t a totally useless exercise.”

She laughed. “Well that’s good, at least. I’d hate to think that you got Oliver drunk for no reason.”

He snorted.

“Yeah. I’d hate for that, too.”

Fifteen months

The grand opening of Verdant, the hottest new restaurant in the Glades was finally upon them.

Oliver got to the kitchen early in the morning with the rest of his staff to get started on all the prep work. John and the serving staff spent all day preparing the dining room and stocking the bar. Tommy was doing the final training for the hostesses and taking care of the business side stuff.

And Thea...well, Thea was supposed to be hosting her parents for their first dinner at the restaurant. And considering the fact that Moira and Robert weren’t wild about the idea of their children opening a restaurant in the first place, she knew she had her work cut out for her.

Thea arrived at Oliver and Felicity’s in the early afternoon that Saturday with two garment bags and a whole duffle filled with different products slung across her shoulders. Then she knocked loudly on the door.

“Felicity, it’s me! Open this door, we’ve gotta get this show on the road!”

The door whipped open a couple of seconds later to reveal a very confused woman still dressed in her sweats.

“Thea?” Felicity asked in confusion. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready for the opening?”

“I am getting ready for the opening,” she answered, breezing through the door. “In fact, we’re both getting ready for the opening.”

Felicity glanced at the clock on the wall. “The restaurant doesn’t open for another three hours.”

Thea shot the other woman a look that meant to say, I know, I’m not an idiot.

“This is a big moment for all of us,” she said seriously. “It’s perhaps the biggest moment in Ollie’s professional career. You have to be there to support him. To support us.”

“Well of course I’m going, Thea,” Felicity said with a roll of her eyes. “I just don’t see why I’m supposed to start getting ready three hours before it even starts.”

“Because, I’ve decided you’re going to have dinner with me and my parents.”

That definitely stopped her in her tracks.

“You and your parents?” she demanded. “As in the guy who’s technically my boss and the woman Tommy routinely refers to as ‘The Iron Lady?’”

“Yep,” Thea replied as she made her way down the hall to Felicity’s room. She quickly hung the garment bags on the hook on her closet door. “I brought two dresses with me just in case nothing in your wardrobe works out. I also brought all my face and hair products. Your shoes are usually pretty on point and we don’t wear the same size anyway, so I didn’t bother with those.”

“Right,” Felicity said faintly. Her expression looked like she was about to pass out any second.

Thea sighed and set her bag down before crossing over to her friend and placing reassuring hands on both her shoulders. “Look, I know it’s not fair of me to spring this on you last minute. But you know how important this restaurant is to Ollie and me, and you know how much our parents disapprove. We need your help.”

Felicity shook her head frantically. “What in the world do you expect me to do that you haven’t been able to? I’m just going to end up babbling up a storm and embarrassing all of us!”

“No you won’t,” she insisted. “It’s a proven fact that any member of the Queen family will automatically like you within seconds of meeting you. Happened to Ollie and happened to me. It’ll be the same with my parents.”

Felicity still didn’t look too sure. She bit her lip and stared hesitatingly at Thea.

“I promise,” the younger woman said with a smile. “You’ll be fine.”

With a sigh, she nodded and let Thea get on with her preparations.

Exactly two and a half hours later, both women were ready. Thea had chosen a lacy red halter dress that clinged to her every curve, paired with a simple pair of black stilettos and gold accessories.

But she ended up spending far more time on Felicity, and the effort paid off in spades, she thought admiringly as her friend stepped out of the bathroom.

“So?” the older woman asked nervously. “How do I look?”

The simple answer was stunning. Thea put Felicity in a dark green, single-shoulder satin dress, with a skirt that flared out at her waist and ended just a few inches above her knee. She also wore a pair of glittering silver pumps, to accentuate the toned length of her legs. The rest of the styling was kept on the simple side: her hair fell over her shoulders in soft, golden waves and her ears sparkled with diamond studs.

“You look incredible,” Thea smiled. “Absolutely gorgeous.”

Felicity smiled back tentatively. “Good enough for the opening of the hottest restaurant in town?”

“Better,” Thea promised. And with that, she took Felicity’s hand and led her out of the apartment.

There was a small crowd outside the building once they reached the restaurant, and Thea’s stomach somersaulted at the sight.

It was here. The day they’d worked toward for more than a year was actually here. This was finally happening.

Felicity reached over the console to grab her friend’s hand. “You ready?” she asked.

Thea nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be.

The two women climbed out of the car and Felicity handed her keys to the valet. Then they walked past the winding queue straight inside.

“Ms. Queen, Ms. Smoak,” the hostess greeted with a professional smile once she saw them. “Thank you so much for joining us this evening. Please follow me. Your table is ready. Mr. and Mrs. Queen have already arrived and are waiting for you.”

Thea grinned. Tommy had done a stellar job with the training.

“Holy cow,” Felicity breathed to her friend as they followed their hostess through the crowded dining room. “This place looks amazing. It looks like an actual restaurant.”

Thea raised an eyebrow.

“I mean, I know it was always supposed to look like a restaurant,” Felicity hurriedly added, “but...you know. For months it was just this empty industrial space and now...now there are tables. And people. And food.”

That made Thea laugh. “I sincerely hope you won’t be the one writing the review.”

“I can, if you want,” she winked. “I could hack Yelp, maybe a few foodie blogs and write gushing, five-star reviews.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Their hostess led them to a sectioned off room in the very back of the restaurant, clearly reserved for the VIPs. The booth they stopped at was the largest one in the room, and Robert and Moira Queen were both already seated, the former in a black suit and the latter in a glittering cocktail dress.

“Your server will be right with you,” the hostess told them pleasantly before giving them a gracious nod and backing away.

Thea inwardly braced herself as she slid into the banquette. “Mom, Dad,” she greeted them warmly as she reached forward to wrap her arms around them. “Thank you so much for coming. This is my friend, Felicity Smoak. She’s also Ollie’s roommate.”

Both sets of eyebrows shot up at the word “roommate.”

“Ah,” Robert said with thinly veiled surprise. “Well it’s certainly nice to meet you, Felicity. Thank you so much for joining us for dinner tonight.”

Felicity fidgeted in her seat. “Thank you for having me,” she said in a voice with the faintest quiver.

Their server came out with a bottle of Lafite Rothschild 1990 and a tray of glasses. He told them Chef Oliver had prepared their menu tonight using the wine as inspiration and hoped they would all enjoy their meal. After the wine was poured, he left the open bottle on the table with a flourish and disappeared.

“I’m really glad you could make it,” Thea told her parents once their server was gone.

“Of course we made it,” Moira said lightly, though her eyes were sharp and calculating. “This restaurant is obviously very important to you and your brother. We weren’t going to miss it for the world.”

To an outsider listening in on their conversation, Moira Queen would have sounded like the perfect, supportive mother. But Thea knew better. She could hear the condescension in her mother’s voice: of course she would show up to the grand opening, but she still didn’t expect much.

Thea was trying to form a response to her mother with equally barbed language, but Felicity chose that moment to step in.

“Oh, it’s important to a lot of people,” she said. “Tommy and Digg, for starters. But not just them, all of the people they’ve hired. Did you know that Tommy only looked for people from the Glades? I mean, it’s widely known that this area has the lowest employment rate in Starling City, so they wanted to make sure they were pulling from local talent.”

Moira and Robert both blinked in quiet surprise.

“Really,” Robert said. Though the word sounded more like a statement than a question.

“Yeah,” Felicity continued. “Plus, all the buzz this restaurant is getting is really great news for local development, you know? If people see that we’re re-investing in the Glades, others will follow. It’s just a restaurant now, but who knows? Maybe another will join soon. Then another and another and soon businesses will start popping up all over the Glades, giving people more jobs and higher property values.”

Thea’s heart flipped over in her chest as she listened to Felicity’s mini-monologue, and she felt a renewed rush of warmth and gratitude toward her best friend’s roommate.

Moira, on the other hand, was still staring at Felicity like she wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. Like she was some sort of interesting puzzle that she was trying to figure out.

“So you think my son’s restaurant is what will save the Glades?” she asked in slight amusement.

Felicity blushed a faint red. “Well, no. I mean, no one thing can save a city. It’s pretty ridiculous to try and say that a single restaurant can lift an entire area out of poverty. But I think it’s the first domino.”

Robert chuckled. “I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.”

A few minutes later, their server returned with their first course, which was a roasted beet salad with a pomegranate vinaigrette.

Thea looked around the table as she ate, carefully measuring her parents’ reactions. Moira’s classic poker face gave nothing away, but Robert looked at least a little pleasantly surprised at the food.

Then the Queen matriarch frowned as she fixed her gaze at something across the table.

“Felicity, is your salad different than the rest of ours?”

Thea glanced down at her plate, then looked at her friend’s. Huh, she thought in puzzlement. It was different.

But it only made Felicity smile softly. She looked down at her plate with a kind of affection Thea never would have expected a woman to have toward a salad, of all things.

“Yeah, it looks like it is,” she murmured to herself. Then she cleared her throat and looked up. “I’m allergic to nuts, and it looks like your salad has crushed pecans. This one doesn’t. Oliver must have remembered.”

Much to Thea’s unending surprise, Moira’s poker face finally cracked, and the formidable woman displayed an expression of astonishment.

“That’s...that’s very considerate,” she said after a long beat.

“It is,” Felicity nodded as she speared a few more spinach leaves. “Oliver’s a very considerate guy.”

And that, it seemed, was the hole in the dam that broke the rest of it wide open. The server brought by the second course (foie gras mousse served on crostini with port cherries, truffle goat cheese and a brandy reduction), and Moira nodded in approval.

By the time they reached their third course (seared Chilean sea bass with a blood orange tarragon beurre blanc), she was smiling. Actually smiling. Moira Queen, of all people.

“That was the best fish I think I’ve ever had,” Robert said as he set his fork down over his empty plate.

“Yes,” Moira nodded as she delicately patted the corners of her mouth with her napkin. “Absolutely delicious.”

The final course was the dessert course, and Thea practically jumped in excitement when she saw it.

“It’s the s’mores creme brulee he made me for my birthday,” she told her parents. “I begged him to put it on the menu tonight and he rolled his eyes and told me forget it. I guess he must have been bluffing.”

Felicity chuckled as she picked up her spoon and cracked open the caramelized sugar crust of her creme brulee.

Once the last of the dessert had disappeared, Oliver chose that moment to step out of the kitchen to visit their table. He was dressed in an impeccably white chef’s coat, though the towel tied at his waist proved that he’d been hard at work all night. There was also a slight sheen of sweat all over his face, but the shine was nothing compared the brilliance of his happy smile.

“Hi, guys,” he greeted his parents, leaning forward to kiss them both on the cheek. “How was your meal?”

Moira grinned at her son. “Sweetheart, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that that was the best meal I have ever had.”

Most children would have dismissed their parents’ glowing praise as nothing more than bias. But most children didn’t grow up with Moira Queen as a parent.

It made her compliment all the sweeter, and Thea watched with pride as her brother’s eyes welled up with tears.

“Thank you,” he said in a voice wavering with emotion. “Thank you guys so much.”

After he hugged his parents, he turned to Thea and swept her up in a hug.

“We did it,” he whispered in her ear.

She squeezed him tight and buried her face in his shoulder. “You did it. I’m so proud of you, big brother.”

When they finally released each other, he turned to his roommate with a smile wider than the Amazon. “And how was your meal?”

“I suppose it was all right. Not anything to write home about,” she responded in a nonchalant tone, but her grin was anything but.

Oliver laughed as he reached forward to give her a hug. Their embrace lingered a little and he whispered something in Felicity’s ear that stained her cheeks bright red when they pulled away.

Thea looked away to hide her smile.

“OK, well I need to get back to the kitchen, but seriously, thank you so much for coming out tonight,” he told them. “It means the world to me.”

“Congratulations, Oliver,” Robert beamed. “We’re really proud of you, son.”

With one last grin, he waved goodbye and ran back to the kitchen.

Though the meal was over, the four of them felt no hurry to leave and lingered over their last glass of wine as they talked. The conversation flowed much more freely than before, and Thea watched as her parents warmed up to Felicity almost exactly as she had predicted. It certainly didn’t hurt when Robert discovered that Felicity worked at Queen Consolidated, though she was far too talented to work in the IT department. By the end of their conversation, he told her that he would try to find her promotion as soon as he could, which only made her beautiful smile even bigger.

When the last of the wine had finally disappeared, they all reluctantly stood to leave. Felicity ducked out for a brief moment to use the restroom, and Moira chose that moment to pull Thea aside.

“Darling,” she whispered to her daughter conspiratorially, “tell me the truth. What’s going on between Felicity and your brother?”

Thea giggled. “Nothing...yet.”

Moira’s sharp blue eyes twinkled. “I assume you have some sort of plan in place to make sure that changes, yes?”

“I have a few ideas, yes.”

“Well,” the Queen matriarch smirked, “should you need help, just know you can always count on your mother.”

Oh yeah, Thea thought smugly to herself as she hugged her mom. Tommy and Digg were going down.

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