After hiding out for much of the next three days with Johnny at his apartment, Maxie finally ventured out of the building on a cold and rainy Tuesday morning. Kate was in Manhattan for the week and had closed the office while she was away. It was rare that she took any kind of vacation and had encouraged her assistants to take advantage of it while they could. The only thing Maxie had to do was check messages and forward the important ones to Kate's BlackBerry – something she could do from the comfort of Johnny's bed and Johnny's arms. However, even the two of them were worn out after seventy-two hours of non-stop sex. They would eventually have to deal with the cruel truths of reality. For Johnny, that meant telling his sister about his change in circumstances; Maxie's fate brought her back to a certain mobster's penthouse.
She smoothed an imaginary wrinkle from her black silk skirt as she waited impatiently for someone to let her into Jason's apartment. Maxie had tried to call Spinelli four times since their argument, but he hadn't answered or called her back. He had asked for his space, but Maxie was scared what would happen if she gave him too much of it. She couldn't lose him completely from her life.
"Hey, Maxie," Carly greeted the blonde as she leaned in the doorway of Jason's penthouse. She looked right at home answering the door, as if she belonged there more than anywhere else in the world. "Spinelli's not home."
"Oh," Maxie deadpanned, clearly disappointed. "What about Jason?"
Carly shook her head. "They are out on business this morning. They should be back any minute now if you wanted to come in and wait," she offered, moving to the side to allow the younger woman passage into the living room. Carly had spent much of her weekend listening to Spinelli lament over his best friend. "How are you holding up after the fight?"
"So you know?"
"He told us everything. You know Spinelli," Carly smiled affectionately. Everyone in Jason's life except Sonny had come to appreciate the strange computer hacker. "I know that he'll be really glad to see you, even if he doesn't seem like it. It's clear that he misses you."
"I don't know, I screwed up pretty bad," Maxie laughed humorlessly. In her world, that pretty much qualified as the most under exaggerated statement of the decade. She had done more than screw up. She had broken his heart. "I'm not sure that he'll forgive me."
The older woman was quiet as she walked over to the mantle and picked up a framed photo of herself and Jason before her wedding a few summers ago. "That's the funny thing about best friends, Maxie, they find a way to forgive you," she retorted. She carried the frame with her back to the couch and sat next to her fellow blonde. "I have put Jason through a lot since he met me, more than most men can handle. I always wondered how he stayed by my side, but I never needed to know why. I knew that he loved me."
"Spinelli is the same way. Most people would want to walk away from me, but Spinelli just wants to stay that much more. I didn't mean to hurt him. It was the last thing I wanted to do…"
"Women like us can't help ourselves sometimes, though, can we?" Carly asked. She understood that illogical need that drove Maxie because it was the same one that pushed her into making some very bad decisions. "Everyone knows how Sonny and I got together. I never thought Jason could forgive me but he did. His need to love me was so much bigger than his need to be angry. Spinelli will find his own way to come to terms with it. You just need to let him."
"How's he been?"
"Quiet sometimes, venting others. Jason has been really amazing with him, patient as usual," she revealed. "Morgan came over last night, and the three of them played video games. I think it helped get Spinelli's mind off things. He's hurt by everything, but he's doing okay. You don't have to worry about him too much."
Carly and Maxie made small talk for the next few minutes until Jason and Spinelli returned to the penthouse. Jason was quiet as he returned his gun to the hall closet. It didn't even phase Carly or Maxie. It was something they were both used to. Once his weapon was out of sight, Carly pulled him toward the stairs so they could give Maxie and Spinelli some privacy. Just as he disappeared up the steps, Jason gave Maxie a very pointed look. She understood his intent and nodded her head before he followed Carly on up.
"What are you doing here, Maxie?"
"I just wanted to check on you."
"I told you that I needed time."
She hated the way he was speaking in the first person and how uncharacteristically like himself he sounded in the moment. "I know, and I will give that to you," she agreed. "I just needed to know that you were fine. I know that now. I can go."
Spinelli watched her cross the living room and start out the door before calling out her name. "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure," she answered as she turned back around "You know that you can ask me anything."
"How come it wasn't me?" he asked. "Why is it never me?"
Maxie looked down at her feet. There was no good answer for that. There was only the truth. "Because even now, as much as I care about you, being in love with you scares the hell out of me, Spinelli," she confessed. "I love you, Spinelli, more than you probably know. That's what makes me know how hard it would be for me to lose you. I broke your heart now, and you don't even have all of me. Can you imagine what it would be like if I did that to you then?"
"Maybe you wouldn't."
"I would," she smiled, amazed by his faith in her even now, "and we both know it."
"So it's not that you don't love me?"
"Honestly, it's because I love you too much," she proclaimed. "I know that sounds like a lie. I know it's hard to believe. With Johnny, it'd suck if I broke his heart or he broke mine, but we would eventually recover. I know that I couldn't get over losing you."
Spinelli smiled sheepishly, clearly touched by her words in spite of himself. "I don't know if I really should believe it, but I'm going to anyway," he replied with a slight chuckle. "And I'm going to find a way to be alright with this, I promise. I meant what I told you the other night, I could never hate you."
"So you'll call me when you're ready?"
"Yes, Maxamista, the Jackal will call you."
Meanwhile, as Maxie and Spinelli came to terms with the change in their friendship, an anxious Johnny sat across from a very suspicious Claudia on the patio at Sonny's mansion. He still didn't feel comfortable coming out here to visit his sister, but she seemed content as they ate their brunch in silence. After all he had gone through with his new brother-in-law in the past, he couldn't help but be on edge. He was waiting for someone to poison his coffee or throw him in a padded room any minute now. It was all a little unnerving.
"Alright, John, what's up?"
"Huh?" he asked, shaking himself out of his daze. "Nothing, just you know."
"Nope, not buying it," she retorted. She knew her brother. He was definitely hiding something from her, and whatever it was, he clearly thought she wasn't going to be happy about the news. "Oh, God, you didn't propose to Lulu, did you? Is she knocked up? It'd be just like that brat to get pregnant on purpose to hold onto you."
"Lulu isn't pregnant," Johnny assured her. "In fact, we kind of broke up."
"Kind of?"
"Decisively. Lulu and I are finished," he confirmed. "It happened a few nights ago."
"And you're just telling me?!?" Claudia cried, her face bright with excitement. She had been waiting months for the demise of a relationship that should have never begun in the first place. "John, this is great!" She paused and noticed the way her brother rubbed his chin, his sure-tell sign of nerves. "There's something more."
"We broke up because I cheated on her."
Claudia shook her head and smirked. She had always known that her brother was more like her than he wanted to admit. "With you?"
"Maxie Jones."
"And is this little affair ongoing or was it just a fling?"
"It's not an affair."
Her jaw dropped as a delighted smile lit her eyes. "You like her."
"Shut up."
"You like someone that you knew I would actually like," she teased. She had tried to pay Maxie last year to sleep with her brother as a way to break up his relationship with Lulu. After the whole debacle with Logan, she had actually come to respect the blonde. She had kept her mouth shut about the entire murder thing, staying loyal to both Lulu and Johnny during the course of the investigation and in the aftermath of Lulu's breakdown. "I like her, John, you can relax."
"Good 'cause she's kind of living in your apartment," he admitted with a cocky grin. Claudia always prided herself on being able to read him, but she hadn't picked up on the secret he had been hiding with Maxie for this long. "I hope you don't mind, but I don't think either of us is exactly welcome at the old place she was sharing with Lulu."
Claudia shrugged before taking a long sip of her orange juice. "My place is your place," she reminded him. She had bought it right after she married Sonny as a way to escape if she needed to get out of the house. Since things between her and her husband were going along swimmingly, she hadn't been there in nearly a month. "Are you okay with everything, John? Does she make you happy?"
He offered her a small smile and nodded his head. "Things are good with Maxie, much easier than they ever were with Lulu. We make sense in a way that I never really did with Lulu, you know? We understand each other. She doesn't need to make me into someone I'm not. It's not something I was looking for, but I guess sometimes these things just find you."
"How'd Spinelli take it?"
The hacker had quite an impression on Claudia when she had been quarantined with Spinelli and Jason at the penthouse. He had deemed her the Vixenella, a nickname that she wore proudly. It fit her without being disparaging or condemning. He seemed to like her as much as she liked him too.
"Not well," he admitted. "Maxie's been pretty upset about it. She went over there to see him now, actually. We're supposed to meet up for dinner tonight to compare notes. She was kind of nervous about telling you after the way things went with her dad."
"Well, you can tell her that I approve," she told him, giving him her blessing. He might not need it but Johnny wanted it. "Just be thankful you don't have to tell our father."
Johnny's solace through all of this had been that his father was locked behind bars where he couldn't terrorize Maxie or use her as a pawn. She was safe from having to endure his games. "I'd like you to spend some time with her. I don't know where it's going, but I think she's going to be in my life for awhile. It'd be nice if you knew her."
"You know I'm never going to be the type to make your girlfriend my best friend, but I can make an effort for you," she pledged. "We can go shopping or something. At least that girl has some taste, which is a lot more than I can say for Lulu."
"Now you just sound like Maxie," he rolled his eyes. "It's not like I am asking you to double date with us anyhow."
"Ha, can you imagine?"
He shivered as he tried to imagine making polite small talk with Sonny over dinner. The two of them would probably go through a bottle of scotch in record time. "No, I cannot."
"I should ask you to spend time with Sonny. He is family after all."
"Claud…" Johnny groaned. He refused to see that man as his brother-in-law, even if his sister was set on staying married to him. "It's just not going to happen."
"I was kidding, John," she assured him softly. She smiled at her brother in a way that she reserved only for him. There would never be another person in this world that would get to see her like this. "You seem happy. It's been awhile since I saw you like that. I'm glad."
A slight blush crept up his throat. "Yeah," he allowed. "I am."
"So does this mean I can be a bitch to Lulu now?"
"Yes because my relationship with her clearly prevented that before!"
Claudia feigned shock. "I was always polite to her, John," she insisted. "It's not my fault that she took everything the wrong way. Maybe if she was a little more personable, she wouldn't have such a hard time dealing with others."
He couldn't help but laugh at his sister's ridiculous attempt at acting innocent. "Just stay away from her. After Maxie moves out, it's what I am planning to do," he replied. "The two of them still have to work together. I don't think I can convince Maxie to quit her job as much as she loves the magazine. I just think we're all better off if the interaction is kept to a minimal."
"I could take care of that for you," she offered. "Sonny has plenty of money, and I'm sure he'd appreciate if I had a pet project to keep my mind busy. I could start a magazine and put Maxie in charge of stuff. It'd be a nice way to stick it to Kate, too."
"Well, I'm pretty sure that staying married to Sonny and rubbing it in her face is damage enough when it comes to Kate," he pointed out. "As for the magazine, Maxie likes working for Kate. It's a good fit for her. She'd be furious with me if I messed it up for her."
"Ugh, fine!" Claudia relented, crossing her arms over her chest in disappointment. "You never let me have any fun."
He rolled his eyes again and leaned back in his chair. It had been too long since he had just spent time with his sister, and he hadn't quite realized how much he had missed her. He had plenty of time before he had to meet Maxie for dinner, and he couldn't think of a better way to spend the day than hanging out with Claudia. "I'll tell you what," he suggested. "I'll listen to you make fun of Lulu for the next half hour."
Claudia smiled devilishly in anticipation. "Do you have any idea how much I love you, John?"
"Some idea," he grinned back, "and I love you, too, Claud."
She reached across the table and patted his hand before settling back to get comfortable. "Now, can we talk about those boots? And the way she walks. Seriously, John, it's like watching a horse…"
