Unravel Me | Arrow [ COMPLETED ]

chapter six

"Idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on his sword
Innocence died screaming; honey, ask me, I should know"
HOZIER - 'From Eden'

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Working was hard when you were still trying to cope with the miraculous discovery and subsequent rescue of the best friend you thought to be dead for five years. Multiple times, Cali had been forced to repeat actions and completely redo an entire hour's worth of filing simply because her head wasn't in the right place. Martha, the stupid blonde bitch, simply sniffed at her and muttered comments under her breath about useless billionaires wasting their time.

Cali took great pleasure in ordering the woman to clean up the spilled milkshake in the science non-fiction section. Martha, as her subordinate, had no choice but to paste on a plastic smile and head over with the mop.

She checked her watch. She'd worked back later than she meant to, and her lunch break started in five minutes. The restaurant she was meeting Tommy at was ten minutes away. That was okay, she'd just text him and warn him that she'd be running late.

She pulled out her phone, opening her messages and starting to type before registering that Tommy had already texted her.

'Can't hang w/ you for lunch today. Meeting w/ Laurel to talk about Ollie. Sorry?'

Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch. Was he serious? He'd literally told her last night that he'd never miss a lunch date with her. And he'd ditched her for Laurel? Of course, Dinah Laurel Lance. She always had to save the world and drag poor, foolish men along with her.

Oh, don't get her wrong, Cali supported Laurel. She was a strong girl, and didn't take shit from anybody, but she had an inferiority complex and self-worth issues massive enough to crush the entire planet. Why Tommy had fallen for her, of all people, Cali would never know.

Swallowing down her hurt, Cali simply texted, 'Okay.'

She shoved her phone back in her bag, sitting at her desk with a heavy sigh. At least she didn't have to cancel any sort of booking. The best part of being a billionaire was that she and Tommy had a table permanently reserved for them, which meant that she hadn't booked it, which meant she didn't have to cancel. If she didn't show up, they'd still hold the table for her.

Grabbing a hair tie, she pulled her hair into a loose bun, settling a pair of reading glasses on her nose. If Tommy had cancelled on her, then there was no reason to stop working. Especially now that she had to refile all this paperwork. It would take her almost her entire lunch break to fix it all up.

Ten minutes into her filing and there was a knock on the door. Cali huffed, juggling several folders and keeping her attention on the filing cabinet as she struggled to make sure the folders didn't fall. "Martha, I swear if you're here to bitch about the kids, I'm going to make you reshelve the entirety of the fauna section."

"I'm not sure Martha deserves to be tortured like that."

Cali jolted in surprise, dumping the files in any random space that would fit them and whirling around. "Oliver!" She squeaked.

Oliver smiled, leaning casually against the door frame. He was dressed down today - jeans, a plain navy sweater and some casual running shoes. He looked a little more settled into his skin today, and something in Cali's chest eased. She hadn't realised that she still harboured a lingering worry that Oliver would float away during the night and they'd never see him again.