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When Oliver received Felicity’s panicked call he’d been pretty sure the day couldn’t get any worse. As he now stood across from Laurel he was pretty sure he’d been wrong.
“You know why I’m here?” She asked, cocking an eyebrow as she dropped her purse onto a nearby chair and took up a defensive stance.
He considered lying and telling her no, but she’d know better then that. “I have a pretty good idea.”
“So when I talked to you last week about getting together with you to return some things and you said you had a business trip, was that a truth or was that a lie?”
Her questions felt to much like an interrogation, and considering her job description he shouldn’t have been surprised, but that didn’t mean he was okay with it. He sighed. “Laurel, what do you think?” Because at this point she knew the real answer.
She narrowed her eyes and stared at him for a moment as she let his answer sink in. “Why?”
This was a conversation he’d been wanting to avoid, even though he’d known it would eventually come to this. Laurel deserved an explanation, but he’d only give up so much to pacify her. As much as she would had him he’d technically done nothing wrong. Not this time. “We didn’t want anyone to know. I was trying to keep it a secret. Not even Thea knew.”
“No,” she snapped, “that isn’t what I want to know. Why her? Better yet,” Laurel grabbed her purse and yanked the magazine from it and held it up for him, “what was going on two months ago that you’re already at this point with her?”
He stared at the picture in front of him, again feeling slightly sick at seeing it plastered there. It’s what he hadn’t wanted, exposing Felicity to that part of his life. He’d wanted to keep her out of it. He’d wanted to keep her to himself, just something that he didn’t have to share with the rest of the world, that wasn’t on display. So he’d whisked her away for the weekend, determine to do something right in his burgeoning relationship with Felicity. They’d gone to one of the homes on the coast. It was private, away from the public. Except there turned out to be a picture, plain as day. He remembered the moment the picture had been taken clearly. Felicity had woken up early, venturing out onto the balcony in just a robe. He’d come up behind her, buried his face into her neck and slid his hand up her thigh. That’s the picture they’d gotten. Felicity’s face was exposed to the world as she bit her lips and tilted her head to the side. That’s what Laurel saw. “It’s complicated,” he said finally.
“Complicated?” She asked and looked at the picture. “Oliver, I think it’s pretty simple. We’ve been separated just three months and you’re screwing your assistant.”
Oliver tensed at her words. Everything about it sounded wrong. And everything Laurel said was what he had been trying to avoid. No one, but Digg, knew what his relationship with Felicity consisted of. They couldn’t understand. They saw Oliver Queen seducing his assistant. What they didn’t see was that she was his assistant because he needed her there, that she was one of the most important people in his life. They didn’t see the nights they spent together, how many times she had tended to his wounds, brought him out of the darkness that threatened to consume him. No one know that. Oliver grabbed the magazine and tossed it to the table. “Everything in there is a lie.” Not the part about him and Felicity, but he’d read the quotes from people who claimed to be close to the Queen family. He read the speculation that he’d moved Felicity from a promising job in the IT department to work as his executive assistant because he wanted to seduce her. His attorney’s were on it, and if they didn’t get a withdrawal from the magazine then he was pretty sure Felicity might act on the idle threats she made.
“Really? Then explain to me again. This woman has been in your life for a couple of years right? Now all of a sudden we’re broken up and your with her. So what was going on three months ago Oliver?” She snapped angrily.
“What?” He asked taken aback. “No. That isn’t what happened Laurel.”
“Because you haven’t done it before, right?” She asked and raised her eyebrows expectantly as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Because it’s such a stretch for Oliver Queen to cheat.”
“I didn’t, not this time.” Even to his own ears it sounded weak.
“Alright, fine. Let’s say you didn’t, which by the way I don’t believe, but I’ll pretend like I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt. Are you going to tell me for one second that you didn’t feel a thing for her while we were together?”
That was the questions he hadn’t wanted. That’s what he had dreaded about the impending conversation with Laurel. Instead of responding he froze, and that was all the answer she needed.
“You did didn’t you?” She whispered. “This entire time I bet. Even before. Why? Why even be with me? If it’s her you wanted-.”
“It isn’t that simple,” he grounded out. There was no way he could explain it, not in a way she would understand. “We were friends Laurel, that’s it. We worked well together. I wanted to keep it that way. I had no intention of it being more.”
“But it is something more now,” she pointed out. “Do you know what that’s like? To realize that entire time you had feelings for someone else?”
“I tried!” He burst out angrily. Her eyes widened at his outburst and he forced himself to take a breath. “I tried Laurel,” he said again, this time more gently. “I tried to make it work and it didn’t. In fact, it hasn’t really worked since I returned from the island.”
“But it works with her? Is that what you’re telling me.”
“Yes,” he responded, unrepentant. Her mouth dropped open at his admission. “It does work with Felicity. Look, I’m sorry, for everything before and everything after, but I won’t apologize for being with her.”
“Well,” Laurel began, pausing for a moment, seeming to struggle with her words, “let’s hope she has better luck keeping you then I did.”
When she turned Oliver opened his mouth, but then he quickly shut it. It wasn’t how he wanted things to be with her, especially after all they had been through, but he’d expected it, and there was nothing he could do to take it back