(BL)Alpha Made
Chapter 186: An relaxing Saturday

Chapter 186: An relaxing Saturday

Breakfast consumed both in and out of the shower, Andrew was slightly surprised when several knocks sounded at the front door.

He wasn’t expecting any visitors, and as far as he knew, Maxwell wasn’t either. Maxwell, however, came prancing out of the bedroom where he was assembling their outfits for dinner, excitement on his features.

"Oh it must be here!" He called excitedly while Andrew watched him in confusion from the doorway to the kitchen. What on earth was he expecting that made him that excited to answer the door? Maxwell hated having to interact with the cold in even minor ways. He hated the freezer.

Andrew watched as Maxwell pulled on his winter jacket to answer the door, but when he opened it, a woman was standing there in an official looking uniform carrying something rather large wrapped in an even more confusing contraption.

It looked like a thermal blanket, but...not quite? The zipper was really confusing him.

"Were you able to get what I wanted?" Maxwell asked and the woman nodded with a smile.

"Yes, Mr. Beckett. They were actually quite happy to offer this one up. It appears Mr. Gates is well known in the community." It clicked, hearing Mr. Gates. It was a gift for dinner tonight.

It made sense now.

"Oh good. Then he’ll probably be pretty happy with this. Thank you for delivering it on such short notice. Is there anything that I should note for transit?" He asked and she shook her head.

"Nope. Just put the plant in a footwell in the backseat and it should be perfectly fine. I would suggest behind your seat, instead of your partners though." She teased, glancing up at Andrew and smiling. Andrew smiled back, giving her a wave.

"Ah. That would make some sense. Shall I drive tonight, Andy?" Maxwell asked, turning to look at him, his blue eyes warm. Andrew sighed, hanging his head before he raised it with a smile.

"Whatever Mr. Beckett wants, Mr. Beckett gets." Andrew teased and Maxwell scowled at him. Andrew moved towards the door, taking the precious plant from her hands. "Thank you for doing this. Mr. Gates is going to be ecstatic." Andrew spoke to both Maxwell and the woman in the doorway.

Both brushed it off.

"It is nothing to thank me for. I’ve been in charge of Mr. Beckett’s inheritance since his grandmother passed, and it is nice to see that it is going to someone who cares so much about them. Mr. Beckett rarely contacts me, so it’s a pleasure to get a phone call from him." It was a lot to learn at once, but Andrew took it all in with a smile.

"Well, I am glad to hear that. Did you want to stay for some tea or a snack?" He offered and she shook her head, a smile on her face.

"No, I wouldn’t want to impose more than I already have. I hope that everything goes well tonight, and I am sure your grandmother would be thrilled that some of her plants were going to someone worthy." She told Maxwell before, with a wave, she headed down the drive.

Maxwell closed the door, taking off his winter jacket as Andrew carefully brought the plant into the kitchen and placed it on the large island. It didn’t feel right to place it on the floor, or on the coffee table in the living room.

"She’s like a caretaker?" Andrew asked and Maxwell nodded, stepping into his line of sight.

"Yeah. My grandmother, when she passed away, left me her gardens. They are huge, and she’s been taking care of them for about 15 years. She had been doing it for a decade when my grandmother passed, and I didn’t see any need to fire her when she was doing a great job. My grandmother was pretty prolific with plants, but none of her kids inherited it. I came the closest, cause I’ve always visited her gardens to catch my breath." Maxwell shrugged, pulling out a stool to sit down in the kitchen. He reached for a strawberry from a large bowl Andrew had been preparing.

He’d been in the middle of batching some things for their lunches when he’d heard the knock on the door. Andrew stared at him as Maxwell shoved the whole strawberry in his mouth and chewed. He looked like a chipmunk, which was even funnier considering how much of Andrew’s-

Alright, let’s focus on something else, hmm? Maxwell hadn’t jumped on Andrew again since they had ’eaten’, and Andrew was fine with that.

"So it’s been about five years since she passed?" Andrew asked carefully and Maxwell nodded. After making sure the plant was safe, Andrew moved back to the side of the island he had been working on. Maxwell continued to hang out.

"Yeah. It doesn’t feel like it, but it’s true. Her gardens are actually really well known. People even visit them. The gardener that you saw actually is quite famous and has several journals and articles published about her and her work in the botanical scene. I wouldn’t know, since it isn’t really a passion on my part, but she’s very dedicated to her work. It means as long as I let her do what she wants, and show interest when she brings up things of interest to me, she takes good care of everything. She has a team of ten others who help maintain the gardens."

Andrew had a feeling that he didn’t want to ask the question of where or what the gardens were called. He knew he’d been shocked, so he just smiled and continued working away.

"That’s actually very interesting. It’s also surprising that Richard’s Dad is well known as well. Did you know that?" Andrew asked and Maxwell shrugged again, continuing to eye up the strawberries. Chuckling, Andrew turned, grabbed a small bowl and placed a few into it before passing it over to Maxwell. He looked pleased as punch at the little bowl of strawberries he received.

"I did some research, of course, and that did come up. He’s focused on just bonsai, and has visited my grandmother’s garden several times to check out the collection there. Honestly, if I knew if it wouldn’t offend him, I’d offer him a job there. Even volunteer. He seems to really care about the plants and I’m sure she would love to have someone like that working with them." Andrew nodded.

"I would wait to offer anything like that till after a few visits. I think this bonsai will be enough. He’ll be happy with this first. He’s also not who you have to win over." Andrew warned and Maxwell froze, strawberry mid way to his mouth.

"He isn’t?" Andrew shook his head.

"No. It’s Richard’s Mom, and she’s a hard shell to crack. Don’t bring anything for her, I promise you it won’t end well." Andrew told him. "I feel like I did warn against food, but yeah, anything really. She only really fell for me because I was a poor kid living next door, whose Mom was a single Mom, and neither of us could feed ourselves." Maxwell frowned.

"So what am I supposed to do?" He asked, clearly not liking the fact he wasn’t able to bring a gift to win favour. Andrew chuckled.

"Talk to her. She likes when people ask her questions." Maxwell nodded slowly at that.

"Okay. I can do that. What kind of questions? Where should I start? What’s safe?" Maxwell asked and Andrew smiled at him.

"Maxy, you’ll do fine. Honestly, I’m selling her a lot harsher then she actually is. I just want you to be prepared. She’s a good person, she just doesn’t like when people are inauthentic." Maxwell looked gaunt.

"I am inauthentic. That’s how I built my brand, Andy. I made sure that every circumstance that I could possibly align, fell into place before we started dating." Andrew started laughing, putting down the knife in his hand to stare at the man across from him.

"Well, you may have attempted to do that, but I recall, it was me breaking down crying while your Dad was around that really cemented that we were dating." Andrew winked, grinning as he reached over and stole one of the strawberries he’d given Maxwell and shoved it into his own mouth. Maxwell gasped, like he’d committed a crime.

"Don’t remind me about that. I’m still pissed he came in to interrogate you when I wasn’t home. I have a plan to cut them all off if something like that happens again." Andrew had a feeling that the plan had only been cut short when Andrew had tried to salvage his relationships with his family, even slightly. Andrew chuckled.

"Well, let me know when you plan to do that. I need to make sure Amir is safe when you go nuclear." Andrew teased and Maxwell sighed.

"And Rue. He’s never done anything wrong. Ugh, alright. Anyways, what are you doing?" Maxwell asked and Andrew chuckled.

"I’m making lunches for us for work. If you keep eating the strawberries we won’t have any for the rest of the week." He teased and Maxwell stuck his tongue out at him.

"I have enough money I can buy some fucking strawberries, Andrew. Now give me some more. They’re really good."