(BL)Alpha Made-Chapter 322: An expensive couple of coffees

The next week flew by.

Between Maxwell’s work picking up, and their preparations to move in, things were hectic at home. It felt like they would get up, eat, get ready for work, go to work, come home and deal with house related issues, and then eat and go to bed.

That was fine with Andrew, because it meant that Maxwell had his hands full. He wasn’t fully paying attention to the things that Andrew was up to, which meant that Andrew was able to sneak around getting things ready for the ring and the final tweaking of the last stages before he got it made. fгeewёbnoѵel_cσm

Amir’s grandmother was in his back pocket the whole week. Andrew had sent off what Maxwell didn’t want that Sunday night, with Maxwell wrapped around him as he slept. Amir’s grandmother had been a great help, and finally Andrew had decided on a few designs. He knew he wanted to do a blue stone to match Maxwell’s eyes. A big one, but not too big. Just a nice statement stone. He then wanted to do some black diamonds around the stone. All in white gold, or whatever metal that the experts said was better. With maybe some smaller diamonds to fill in the space if there was any space?

Andrew didn’t want it to be too much, but he wanted everyone to notice it right away. Amir’s grandmother had laughed and told him that others would notice alright, and to leave it in his capable hands. He was going to make up a few mock ups and show Andrew what he had come up with.

It was Thursday when he sent off five ring types for Andrew to choose from. Andrew had ended up going with design number 4. He was told that he had chosen the one that was an oval shape as the main stone shape. It had the support for the gem, which Andrew wanted and Maxwell wanted as well, but it had what Amir’s grandmother referred to as an ’antique style’.

Andrew felt that was just the polite way of saying that Andrew wanted a lot of sparkles for his sparkly, pretty boy, and he deserved them. The stone itself was blue tanzanite. That was the colour that Andrew ended up really liking, and they had found something around 5 carats that really spoke to Andrew. It was slightly above, but Andrew wasn’t really counting carats, he was more making sure that the ring looked good.

Amir’s grandmother loved that Andrew didn’t care about carats, but had put his nose up at Maxwell having anything under 2 carats as his main stone.

Surrounding the main stone was the row of black diamonds. It was the feature of the ring, and why Andrew had really gone with this decision. There was another one that had the stone in the center with a ring of the black diamonds around it, but Andrew hadn’t liked the shape of the stone. Too square. It didn’t speak to him as a ring Maxwell would like.

There were some details, some small patterns that had spoken to Andrew when it came to this ring in particular, and it had to do with how the stone in the center was surrounded by the black diamonds. With the accents, it made the rich blue tone pop more of the tanzanite pop more. Andrew had thought that he would have ended up with a more common stone, like sapphire for the centerpiece.

When Amir’s grandmother had heard that Andrew was trying to match Maxwell’s eye colour, he had practically thrown the book full of sapphires to the side to yank out a completely different gem. Andrew hadn’t heard of tanzanite before, but he was glad that Amir’s grandmother got it. His eyes had sparkled and it was only once that he made a comment saying that his tanzanite supplies were going to fly off the shelves once this ring was revealed.

It was such a nice design. Especially with the contrast of the other white diamonds that were set into the ring that just pulled the attention to the center stones. It really put the gem in focus. It was sparkly in just the right way, and also had a firm but delicate appearance that Andrew thought would suit Maxwell.

The sides of the ring, since both Andrew and Maxwell were against a solitary stone, had two intertwining rows in the shapes of open ovals with smaller white diamonds, slightly helping with support and also adding to the shape of the ring. The center of the ovals were open, with no metal or stones set in them, giving it a ’breathable’ look. Where the two ovals met another black diamond was going to sit, bringing the black further down the ring. Andrew thought that was a nice touch, and Amir’s grandmother had looked proud when Andrew said it.

There were a couple of design choices that Andrew didn’t think were perfect, like some scalloping that Andrew wasn’t certain about and that it was a bit too pointy for his liking, but Amir’s grandmother had assured him those were also for support reasons. It would look much better in person, once it was completed, and if he still didn’t like it, they would keep the stones, and redo it.

Till he was happy with it.

Once that was explained to him, that was the ring he decided on.

Amir’s grandmother, who was meeting him at a coffee shop three blocks away from his work during his lunch break, had gotten up, forced Andrew up and hugged him fiercely, his eyes bright, warm.

"You’ve made a wonderful choice, Andy. Max is going to love it." He told him, squeezing the anxious alpha.

"Are you sure?" Andrew asked, now that he had finally decided on the ring, a different kind of worry filled him. "Is he going to think it’s too...much?" Andrew asked, realising that that was now the new worry. Forget the picking out the ring, what if Maxwell hated it? Amir’s grandmother laughed, squeezing him tightly.

"You foolish thing. He’s going to love anything you give him, especially when you tell him that you chose the ring that you did to match his eyes." Amir’s grandmother said, his expression soft. "Now. I have to leave. I have a rather important client who just put in his engagement ring. I really wouldn’t want to keep him waiting too long and I need to get this design to my best crafters." He said with a smirk and Andrew let out a shaky breath.

"Thank you for being so...understanding and flexible." Andrew told him, meaning his words. "I owe you something, probably more than a dinner, but you aren’t allowed to turn down the invite for dinner once we get settled into our new place." Andrew told him and he let out a laugh, reaching up and squeezing Andrew’s cheek in between his fingers.

"Cheeky. Smart of you to know I won’t accept anything outside of a meal. Your Mother raised you well. I’ll keep you up to date with the progress. Do you want me to keep the ring once it’s ready?" He asked and Andrew nodded.

"Yeah. The less Max can find, the better." Andrew could feel his face crease with his smile. He was going to have to control that before he got back to the office. Maxwell would be able to sniff that out.

He was actually quite proud of himself. He’d done that in record time. It’d only taken him what? Two weeks since he’d put his head down and started working on it? That was rather impressive. He’d filled his mind with so many ring related terms that he was sure he’d be able to crush it at a wedding vender shop along.

He didn’t know if those were a thing, but maybe it was? Whatever.

Amir’s grandmother sighed, pulling on his jacket.

"Are you going to want a collar as well?" He asked and Andrew nodded.

"Similar design, black velvet like we had discussed before." Andrew said and he nodded.

"Of course, Andy. I understand. I’ve seen Max wearing the velvet collar he’s been wearing recently." There was a smirk to his voice and Andrew flushed.

"Maxwell was the one who made those. This would be the first one that I made for him." He admitted. He was also pulling on his jacket, his hands shaking slightly after finally deciding on a design.

"Hmm. How many does he have?" He asked and Andrew sighed.

"I think...7? He said he wanted me to have options." Andrew admitted and Amir’s grandmother gave him a warm look.

"You are well loved by quite the obsessive man." He told him and Andrew grinned widely.

"I know." Andrew agreed, no hint of remorse in his voice and he threw back his head and laughed.

"Does he know you are just as bad as he is?" Amir’s grandmother asked and Andrew felt his heart warm.

"I think he’s getting it slowly, but I’m hoping that we’ll be married before he fully knows." Andrew told the older man and he just laughed harder.

"Sneaky. Good. You need to be sneaky to match him as well." He told him, before he looked over at the drinks. "Would you be a dear and get me another coffee and a London fog? My sweet husband has an addiction to them and I promised him I’d get him one today when I was out." Andrew jumped at the chance to pay for something for him. Even if Andrew knew this was a peace offering of sorts, he was still happy that he was given an option to.

"Not a worry. Just a coffee? Black?" Andrew asked and he nodded.

"Just black for me." He said with a sigh. "I need to watch my sugar intake. The doctor complained when I last saw him." Andrew slid his gaze to the cup that had held a latte. A sweet, cinnamon and vanilla latte that had been on feature before sliding his gaze back to Amir’s grandmother. He winked. "What the Doctor doesn’t know, doesn’t hurt him." He said with a teasing grin.

Andrew was pretty sure that wasn’t how it worked, but at least he wasn’t getting two sugary drinks. He just shook his head with a smile and continued towards the line. He felt that he shouldn’t poke that topic. Not until he finished his schooling.

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