The Guest House

"I can do this, I can do this" Felicity whispers to herself while walking the path to the mansion, nervously passing her phone from one hand to another, she stops, typing on the screen and places the phone on her ear "I can't do this"

Sara laughs "Don't back out! This has be going on long enough"

"How much money are you and Tommy betting on this?" She knows her friends all too well.

"How dare you?" After a beat of silence she adds "Nyssa and Diggle are also in , speaking of inappropriate bets we place on each other's lives, Tommy and Carrie broke up, he said he woke up to her trying to cut a lock of his hair last night. So you won that bet...So you have some extra cash to take Oliver on a date

Felicity is already turning back to her home, she can't do this, she is going home and calling Tommy, is the right thing to do it check on her friend "Anyway me asking him out may be a little forward? Oh my google do I sound like a woman brought up in olden times?" She stops, turning back towards the mansion, she is a modern woman, she wants and she is going for it.

"Felicity it's not forward is called being an adult being truthful and putting your heart out there" Sara knows all this talk is just fear talking over.

Felicity takes a deep breath "Ok, I am going to ask him on a date. I will call you latter"

She notices the lights on the kitchen are on, it's too late for Raisa to still be working so must be someone from the family, she climbs the couple of steps and takes a look down on the window, she can’t ask Oliver in front of his parents or Thea.

Her heart drops when she sees Laurel placing her hand on Oliver's cheek, she closes her eyes not wanting to watch what is about to happen. She quickly goes down the small stairs, kicking a couple of garden tools on her way. She doesn't even stop to put it back in its place all she wants to run home and forget she ever thought Oliver Queen may feel the same way she does.

The cold light of the refrigerator shines on Oliver's face, he sighs, the shelves are full but he cares for nothing. If he is being honest with himself he is bored, William is with the Claytons, Thea at Roy’s, his parents out on a date. He looks at the plate of Raisas's famous Chebureki on the kitchen island. Felicity loves those, he saw her car pull up in front of the guest house not long ago. Maybe he can take her some, suggest they watch a movie, a glass of wine, that sounds like the perfect night, the type to leave up to something more.

"OLLIE?" A shout interrupts his musings.

"Kitchen" he answers and Laurel walks in, he really needs to talk to security, not that they need to stop her from entering but he is getting tired of her surprises drop by, here and at QC, he wants to be able to say, tell her I'm in a meeting right now or I am not home.

"Hi, I hope you don't mind" She shows him a folder "Last time you hated all the places, I reach out to a friend that is a real estate agent and she sent me a couple of places that are on the market, you know that is one great just down my street"

"Laurel, I really appreciate it but you know back in San Francisco I lived less than five minutes from Sam's and it worked for us. I keep thinking that I hate every place I look because it's wrong to choose without her opinion, without her. And truth to be told I came to depend a lot on Raisa, my parents, Thea and Felicity" he wonders if one day he would be able to say her name without smiling "I think we are good here for now"

"Oh"

"But thank you for going through all this trouble for me"

She steps closer to him "How about you buy me dinner and we call even?" She places her hand on his cheek, lifting her face closer to his, Oliver frowns taking a small step back, when a noise outside, stops both on the spot.

"Stay here I will go check it out" He says hurriedly, happy about the distraction gently pushing her away from him by her shoulders.

"Felicity! FELICITY!  You can't possibly think I'm going to accept you can't hear me" Oliver jogs towards her.

"Oh hey Oliver" Felicity says in a high pitched voice trying and failing to appear nonchalant "How is it going?"

Oliver, still a little out of air, frowns "I am doing fine, were you looking for me?" He asks in a hopeful tone.

"Yeah, No! Thea! I was looking for Thea, I was going to ask to borrow her charger" She lifts her hand showing him her phone "She has the same model and I forgot my on the office but then I remember that I am a tech CEO so I must have a spear somewhere in my place, so I am going to go look for it"

"Wait" He places his hand on her arm "I was actually just about to text you"

"Well I wouldn’t see it, no battery" She interrupts him "You should go back to your date"

"That is not a date, Laurel is just" he struggles to find a word that would describe his ex-girlfriend that saw more in what he saw as only friendship.

"You don't need to explain yourself to me. You are free to do whatever you want just as I am free to do whatever I want....I am just a friend who babysits like Laurel said. I really need to go, I have ice cream out, melting….Just like me in this conversation" she whispers the last part for herself.

She hastily continues the path to the guest house leaving an utterly confused Oliver behind.

"It's everything ok?" Laurel asks as soon as he takes a step in.

"Yes, it was Felicity" He answers with his eyes on the floor, his mind it's out there with her, something stuck with him "Did you see her recently?"

"Yeah we see each other often, we do run in the same circles" She bites the inside of her cheek, Oliver knows it is one of her tells.

"Did you say anything to her? About me or William?"

"Oh, I just thank her"

"For what exactly?"

"For baby sitting William, I just said we appreciated it. You know maybe we should look for some team sport William can join after school. He shouldn't spend all his time with his face in books. You played baseball maybe he would enjoy"

Oliver rubs his eyes, a sharp pain is starting behind it "We?" Laurel opens her mouth but Oliver does not even want to hear the rest. He feels horrible having to hurt her again of all of the people but he needs to make things clear  "Listen Laurel you are a terrific person but there is no us. I am so sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, I value your friendship but I am not interested in revisit the past"

"Oh, I see it. I totally misread this" She looks down  “It is so stupid. I tried, you know? To move on, there was this guy, he was perfect then he proposed and I just couldn’t see myself growing old with him. Then you came back right after that and I thought, you were the reason and if we find our way back together, that all would be worth it you know, all the hurt would mean something because we got our happy end…It was silly” Laurel covers her face, ashamed.

“I am really sorry Laurel, but whatever reason is holding you back I don’t think it is me, the perfect guy for you is out there, maybe even closer than you think” He said enough, soon they will realize what is right in front of them, he can't tell people what to do with their lives “I never meant to hurt you Laurel…your friendship is too important to me”

"No need to be sorry, friends it is, I am a great friend, we are going to be the best of friends" she says with a smile that doesn't reach her eyes "Now if you don’t mind, I think I should go. I will see you around Ollie".