Maddie stopped dead in her tracks when she heard Zack calling her. She tried to ignore him, but found for some reason that she couldn't. She hated to admit but Zack Martin had on her, and he was not about to let her go.

Therefore, she tried to play it cool. She tried to play, the "I'm older then you, we can't be together" card like the one she always did. She turned around to speak. "Zack you need to go home, we've been through this. I'm three years…"

Zack interrupted her saying. "Don't play that card. It's not going to work, it never has. Maddie just give us a shot. What the hell do you have to lose?"

Maddie walked up to him, and took his hand. "It's not that easy Zack, I work at the Tipton, if Mr. Moseby were to find out that I'm fraternizing with one of the guests I could get fired." She explained.

Zack being his always-clueless self responded. "I don't want to fraternize, I want to date you." Not knowing what fraternizing meant.

Maddie sighed. "Zack it means the same thing, and that's just it, I can't date a guy who doesn't know the definition of some of the words I say. I want some one who is educated, humorous handsome, rich, and well to do."

Zack scoffed at her dream guy. "Educated like Trevor? Humorous like Esteban? Handsome like Jeff? Rich like Jason. Well to do like Jesse? Ooh I know let's have Arwin event a machine to merge all five people together to make Maddie's dream man. We can call him Francis. Five Random Asses Now Completely in Sync." Zack sardonically shouted.

Maddie had just about enough of Zack's sarcasm, "Now you are just being ridiculous Zack."

"Exactly Maddie, the guy you want does not exist in your world. He'll never exist in your world, but I do. I exist, I'm alive, and am willing to bend over backwards to show you that, why can't you just give me a chance." With that he ran his thumb over hear chin and leaned close. However before he could advance any, further she turned away.

"What are you so afraid of?" He asked her.

"Nothing, I just don't want to date you." She lied, she wanted him as much as he wanted her, but to Maddie their age difference meant everything to her. She knew that Zack didn't care what everyone thought about the relationship, but she did. She cared. "I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea, what if people found out?"

Zack sighed, as if he was going to televise their relationship over the five o'clock news. Yeah he probably would have thought about it, but would have thought better knowing that it would hurt Maddie. "What do I have to do to prove to you, I will not tell anyone of this, I promise."

Maddie wasn't convinced, until Zack responded by saying "Including Cody, baby, and you know I tell him everything."

"I know." She softly said as he drew nearer to her.

"So what do you say? Let's give it a go." Zack asked his eyes pleading with hers.

Maddie sighed. She didn't speak, what she did, however, was pull him into a long passionate kiss. He pulled back and smiled. "I'll take that as a green light." He smiled pulling her into another mind-blowing kiss. He smiled as he let up.

Maddie smiled. "I know I'm gonna regret this, but I'm not going to deny my feelings any longer, I'm not going to try to avoid the way I think I feel about you. I'm not sure if it's Love or just curiosity, but I realized there is only one way to find out.

"Good, and baby, you're not going to regret it." He smiled giving her another peck on the lips.

"I hope not, because damn, you are a good kisser."

"I try. Let's say I take you home." Zack said considerately. He hated the thought of Maddie having to walk home by herself every night.

"Oh Zack, that's so sweet but I can go home by myself." Maddie giggled as she gave Zack one last kiss on the cheek before walking away. "I will see you tomorrow."

"Count on it, sweet thing." Zack said as he watched her cross the empty intersection to the other side of the street.

-----

Carey had just finished showering, and changing her clothes, when she came out of the bathroom with a towel high on her head, and her bathrobe on. She decided to go check on the boys, who she thought were in their bedroom, but was he in for a shock when she only found Cody.

"Hey Code! Where's your brother? She asked her younger son.

"He went out." Cody replied.

"Why?" Carey queried

"We got into a fight, that's why?"

"A fight? What did you two fight about?"

"Nothing, he just snapped at me and left." Cody explained, not telling his mother the whole truth. He wasn't about to rat out his own brother.

"Cody it had to be something, you don't fight over nothing." Carey had her suspicions that Cody wasn't telling her the truth, she knew something was up. She was now bound and determined to know what it was. She also knew all she had to do was give her 'look' and Cody would break.

"Alright, I'll tell you." But he was too smart to fall for his mothers tricks, no he decided he tell her. He'd quickly thought of something to tell her. "Zack and I were fighting because we had a disagreement on…." Just as Cody was about to finish, Zack walked in.

"Hey what's going on?" Zack asked. Carey looked at her son a bit frustrated at the fight between her boys.

"Your brother was about to explain why you two were fighting." Carey replied.

Zack gave his brother and look of complete disdain. "You told her, how could you." Zack shouted.

Cody chuckled at little. "Yeah, Zack I told her how we were arguing about what to get her for her birthday."

Zack let out a huge sigh of relief. "Oh, that's right. And No you just ruined the surprise." Zack said giving a silent thank you to his younger twin.

Carey smiled. "As thoughtful as that is guys, my birthday isn't for another 4 months. What's really going on."

Zack and Cody looked at each other realizing it was pretty difficult to keep anything from their mother, she'd find out eventually. "Cody had been teasing me about my ongoing crush on Maddie; I hit him and told him it wasn't a crush."

Carey sighed running a hand through her locks. "Zack this crush on Maddie isn't healthy; you know that you two will never be a couple. Don't you?"

Zack nodded. Glad his mother or his brother was completely clueless of his new relationship with the candy counter girl. "Yeah, I know. I'll to get passed this crush, and move on to something bigger."

"Good, that's my perfect boy." Carey said getting all sappy and motherly on him.

"Oh, Mom please now I'm going to have to take a shower." Zack smiled as he walked into the bathroom. He started to undress, but first he took out his cell phone to call Maddie.

tbc