The Man Behind The Beast (BWWM) ✓

Chapter 12: Prepare The Food At The Market

Hey guy! Sorry for the lack of uploads these past few days. My boyfriend came back from the Air Force for a little while, and just got deployed again. I wanted to spend as much time as I could with him before he left because we both never know for sure when he'll be coming home. Thanks for being so understanding!

"Listen. Once we enter, we will be greeted by a long time friend of mine and my family. Her business with my family's is detrimental, so under no circumstances do I want to hear the words Mafia or Mob mentioned during this visit, understood?" He spoke, as we walked up the steps to the entrance of the little market.

"My lips are sealed." I replied, grinning slightly while my fingers wound their way around the door knob.

"Elle... Elle, I mean it. Elle-"

"Is that Stefan DeGramont I hear?" An older woman asked, as she suddenly appeared from around a back office area. She, much like Mrs. Potts, looked older than her body language gave on. Her walk held a certain youth to it, yet as she drew closer, I could see her age much more apparent on her face. Nevertheless, this woman was absolutely stunning. Her bright blue orbs contrasted so drastically with her now salt and peppered hair that once must have been black.

She probably juiced.

The inside of the market took me by surprise. As I looked around, there were wooden crates with large, fresh vegetables, that line the walls of the compound, and created rows along the inside. It smelt surprisingly great in here, like a sweet pomegranate aroma floated through the open space.

From the front entrance, you actually couldn't notice how many windows there were on the sides of the building for prestige ventilation.

There was another door that was open at the very back, and through it, I could see it lead straight into a greenhouse that looked like it held even more fruit and some flowers.

"Grace." Mr. DeGramont smiled.

Mr. Fucking DeGramont smiled.

I think I just might have died and went to heaven. The way his face lit up, with his now apparent smile lines, sent me into a heated frenzy.

"How are you, Stefan?" She asked, wrapping her small arms around his humongous frame.

Was it weird to be jealous of a 50 something year old lady? Or...

Wait. Wait wait wait. Did she just say Stefan? It dawned on me, that I never actually took it upon myself to find out his first name. I always just called him Mr. DeGramont. Stefan fit him so... Well.

"I'm doing well, Gracie." He replied, hugging her back.

Oh. He had a nick name from her. Coolcool.

"Jesus, Stef, you just keep on growing don't ya?" She sighed, running her hands over his large frame.

Oh. They had nicknames for each other. RightRight.

"Now who is this beauty?" She asked, turning to me.

"This is my cook, Miss Elle Mallerie. She needed to get some more vegetables, so I decided to bring her here today." Stefan explained.

"Oh, wow, you are absolutely stunning!" She noted. I could feel my cheeks heating up.

"T-Thank you. So are you." I replied nervously.

"Can I keep her?" Grace asked Stefan, as she wrapped both her arms around me from behind in a tight and warm embrace.

"No, Gracie, she already has a job working for me." Stefan replied, walking further into the store.

"Fine." Grace grumbled, releasing me from her embrace. "You go pick out whatever groceries you want, love, I'll come find you all before you leave so I can save goodbye." She nodded, placing a soft kiss on my temple, before speed walking her way back into the greenhouse.

I had to jog a little ways to catch up with Stefan.

"You know? I honestly wouldn't mind working here." I announced, grinning when his face whipped to me.

"Don't say things like that." He replied, placing a few bananas in a woven basket that he had somehow miraculously gotten. He, then, pulled another basket out from underneath his and handed it to me.

"Hey, I'm serious, she seems lovely." I replied, as I pulled the list of groceries up on my phone. "And you two seem very close."

"I've know her for some time now. She's probably one of the most intelligent woman I e had the pleasure of meeting. She devoted nothing less than 34 years of her life to the study of biology, and how it related to wildlife ecology. Take this watermelon for example, it's 100% organic, yet, is at least twice the size of an original watermelon. She's been able to do this to more than 78% of her produce." He explained, leading me crate by crate to show me.

That was why I was slightly astonished by how large and juicy everything looked. I hadn't even noticed just how large the spinach leaves were, or how ripe the avocado's looked.

"That amazing." I whispered, picking up a honeydew melon almost twice the size of my head.

"This is why her business is so vital to my family. She might be one of the most intelligent gardener/botanist alive." He nodded, placing some of the melons in his basket, and the lighter fruit in mine.

"How does her business related directly to yours?" I asked, as I walked us both over to a leafy spinach isle.

"She provides my company with exclusive information on her findings, and in exchange, we help her with resources that will accelerate the pace of her research. We also give her our word that her research will be put into the world for good, which it has. We currently have a few fields in Africa, working on a miracle water formula that will help with the drought."

"So this is why you didn't want me to mention anything about your companies illegitimacies." I nodded, finally understanding.

"We need her partnership for what we do. There may be parts of our company that's morally challenging, but this isn't one of them. This partnership is the purest thing my family has right now." He explained.

"Oh wow. She seems quite close with your family. I guess this partnership has lasted a while?" I asked, trying to nonchalantly pry into his families history.

"Well, she was originally brought on after she had an affair with my mother."

Of course. Because, there was just no way she wasn't involved with one of the DeGramont men- wait...

"M-Mother?" I asked, making sure I heard him right.

"Yeah," he nodded, turning to me, "Gracie is a lesbian, Elle."

Oh.

Oh.

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