Oliver paced.

Felicity and Slade had left a couple of hours ago. Slade's flight was leaving in about an hour. Felicity would be back soon. And he was afraid she would be angry.

Rightfully so. He'd been jealous and selfish and he'd interfered in her life, something he'd sworn to himself that he would never do.

"I'm heading out," Dig said.

Oliver turned to him. "Why?"

He smirked. "I don't need to be here when she hands your ass to you."

"Fair enough. See you tomorrow."

Dig opened the door and called down as he walked out, "Apologize before she can say anything. It will shock her into silence."

"Funny," Oliver replied, though Dig didn't hear him.

Alone now, he started pacing again, trying to think of what he could say or do to fix this. Flowers? Chocolates? A new computer or some other electronic thing that he didn't understand, but she would love? Felicity wouldn't be bought, he knew that, but there had to be something he could do.

"Slade's gone." Felicity said.

"I didn't hear you come in!" He practically yelled. "Sorry, it's just hard for people to sneak up on me."

"I wasn't sneaking, maybe that's why your spidey-sense didn't tingle."

It was a joke, but she didn't smile. Her sadness was like a punch to his gut. It was his fault.

"Where's Dig?"

"He said he didn't want to be here when you handed my ass to me." Oliver pretended to work on the arrow in his hand.

"Can we do it later? I'm pretty drained." Felicity sat down in her chair, spinning it to face him. "We both know you acted like a selfish bastard and interfered in my personal life."

"Yeah."

"Are you going to do it again?" she asked.

He didn't answer.

"I'll give you a hint." Felicity leaned forward. "The answer is no."

The arrow in his hand hit the table with a clang. "I can't promise that."

She pulled her glasses off and rubbed her temples. "Why can't you ever make anything easy?"

"Do you think I like feeling this way?" He took a step toward her. "Seeing Slade and you together… I don't think I've ever been that jealous of anyone before. I'm sorry."

Felicity stared at him wide-eyed.

Dig was right, he had struck her speechless. "I respect Slade and you're my friend and I should have just stayed out of it."

"Yeah, you should have." He couldn't figure out how she was feeling toward him at the moment.

"I'm sorry."

"You said that already."

He stood completely still, waiting for her to give him some indication of how she felt. At least a hint.

Felicity stood up, kicked her chair so it rolled backwards, and stalked over to him. "Why?"

He waited for more, but she didn't say anything else. "Why what?" he finally asked.

"Why were you jealous of Slade?" she crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a steely look.

"You know why," he said softly.

"I want you to say it. So we can both hear how it sounds."

He gave a big sigh. "I was jealous of Slade because he looked at you like you were the most beautiful girl in the entire world and I didn't want anyone looking at you like that except me."

Felicity leaned toward him. "But you don't look at me that way."

"Not when you can see me, no."

That answer surprised her.

"I've dated a lot of guys before him." She tapped her collarbones. "It's something about him. You never thought of me like that before Slade came."

"Yes, I did." He took a tentative step toward her. "I've seen you like that since the day I met you, but I was never in a place where I could do anything about it."

"What about now?" she asked.

He took another step toward her. "Now, if you're willing, I'm prepared to do something about it."

Felicity bit her lip and looked down at his feet. "I'm not sure how I feel about this."

His heart dropped. "Which part?"

"Last night I was with Slade and tonight you want me to be with you. Does that make me a slut?" She looked up at him. "I've never been called that before, but I've also never slept with two guys in the same week."

Oliver tried not to smile. "Do you want me to wait until next week and try again?"

She let out a big breath. "No."

Nervous, he reached out and touched her face. "I would really like to kiss you."

"I am a little out of sorts." Her voice was soft as he rubbed her cheek. "I had a whole spiel I was going to give you about not messing with my life outside of vigilante business. I planned on yelling at you about taking away the small amount of time Slade and I had together. I was going to call you an ass." Felicity looked up at him, tears appearing in her eyes. "I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do now."

"Please don't cry," Oliver begged. "I don't know what to do when you cry. Especially because, more often than not, I'm the one who caused the tears."

She gave a weak laugh.

"So what now?" he asked.

Felicity went up on her tip-toes and kissed him chastely on the cheek, then she turned around and picked up her stuff. It wasn't until she got to the stairs that she spoke to him, "You coming or not?"

Warmth spread through every piece of him. "Absolutely."