"You know this is wrong, right?"

Johnny looked up over the edge of his cup of coffee and smiled at Maxie. They both knew that it was wrong, and yet, every day at noon when Maxie disappeared from the Crimson office for lunch, they just happened to find each other in this diner on the edge of town. Her foot rested gingerly in his lap beneath the table, her heel kicked off under her chair. He reached across the table for her hand, enjoying the fact that he could hold it in public without worrying about the scrutiny of half of Port Charles. He also didn't have to worry about Lulu happening upon them while running errands for Kate.

"Yeah, it's wrong," she acknowledged without looking up for her fashion magazine. They spent most of their lunches like this, just sitting together in silence while they read the newspaper. Sometimes they would talk, but he seemed content to just be there with her. "That's part of the fun for you, isn't it, Zacharra?"

"Why you sittin' all the way over there?"

"We are not going to be one of those couples that sit next to each other in a booth."

He smiled at her unexpectedly. She hadn't even realized what she had said until he smirked at her. "Oh, so we're going to be a couple?"

"Finish your lunch."

"Maxie likes me…"

She couldn't help but grin as he hooked his ankle around her chair and pulled it next to him. They looked just like any other couple, bickering and laughing at the corner table in the small café. Maxie liked feeling the normalcy she felt when she spent time with Johnny. It had been nearly two years since she had been half of a couple. She'd had Spinelli in her life, but it wasn't quite the same hanging out with a guy who doubled as your best friend. She was yet to tell the computer hacker the truth about her relationship with Johnny. She knew that it was only a matter of time before the rest of the world found out their secret. For the time being, however, she was choosing to prolong the inevitable.

"I do like you, Johnny," she confessed. Her voice was small and childlike, as if she was afraid to admit it to herself as much as she was afraid to tell him. This had the potential to matter to her more than any relationship before in her life. She loved the time that they spent together, the rare moments where she could quit pretending to be anything other than the person that she was. Johnny had quickly become the place she could go to when she needed to just be. He had come to be able to let his walls down around her, too. There was no pretending that they were perfect. All of their flaws were out there, completely on display for the other to see.

"I like you, too," he offered, lacing their fingers together. "It's funny how things work out, you know? When I first met you, I absolutely hated you. I couldn't stand you. I thought you were a selfish bitch who couldn't see past status or herself to get to really know someone. You were this conniving schemer out for blood when it came to what you wanted. As much as I didn't want to like you, I couldn't help but admire you. For all the things that you were, you didn't care how anyone saw you. You just were yourself, unapologetically and unabashedly."

A slight blush crept up her neck and onto her cheeks. Maxie rarely felt embarrassed. Guys were always telling her that she was beautiful or sexy. Girls complimented her makeup or her taste in clothes. However, very few people ever viewed her wild streak as anything worth celebrating. That was what made Johnny so different from everyone she had ever known. "I didn't want to like you either," she admitted. "You were this cocky, arrogant jerk who didn't see anything other than Lulu. You know, I never got what guys see in her, but I guess the whole damsel in distress thing can be appealing."

"I never really thought that I could save Lulu," he sighed, looking out the window to avoid her gaze. "I think I thought that it was more about wanting her to save me. I thought that I could never be the man I want to be and have my last name. That night when we were trapped in the garage changed all that. I realized that I could be a Zacharra and still live out my dream. I just can't hide in someone else."

"So what changed your mind about me? What made you like me?"

"That night in the garage I got to see an entirely different side of you, too. I had never really heard you talk about your sister. It was the first time I felt like someone understood why Claudia is so important to me. As much as Lulu loves Nikolas and Lucky, it's just not the same. She's never only had one person in the world to depend on, but you had that with Georgie. She was the one person you knew would always be at your side, whether you were shipped off to Texas to see your mom or were kidnapped or whatever. You had gone through everything with Georgie. Claud is that for me. Seeing how you loved your sister – it just showed me what kind of person you really are. I know you try hard to fight it, but I see it, Jones. You're a sweetheart underneath it all."

"Me sweet? Hardly," she scoffed. Spinelli was the first person to ever see that side of her, and now, Johnny was beginning to see the part of her heart she had worked hard to hide. It made her soft and vulnerable, gave someone the ability to hurt her. She had shown just glimpses of that person to Coop and Jesse, both instances ending in disaster. "We're too jaded to qualify as sweet."

A waitress came by to drop off their check. Maxie insisted on taking turns with him on paying the tab, today being his turn. Johnny dropped a few bills on the table before standing up to pull her to her feet. Wrapping his arm around her, he escorted her out of the restaurant and onto the quiet sidewalk outside. "Do you have to get back to work or what?"

"I have some time."

"Do you want to walk for awhile?"

"I could walk," she decided. They headed down the alley in the opposite direction of the rest of traffic. Port Charles was especially this beautiful this time of year. The cherry blossom trees had started to bloom, their fragrance filling the air. There were tulips and daffodils lining the sidewalks, the grass just starting to green. "You know what I miss?" Johnny raised his eyebrow, a sign for her to continue. "I miss the feeling of something new. It's been a long time since I had something new to look forward to,"

"This is something new."

"True," she acknowledged as they paused beneath a tree. Johnny leaned in and kissed her briefly. Pink petals rained down from the tree, falling into their hair and at their feet. Maxie reached up and picked a blossom from his dark locks as they pulled apart. "I wish that we could get out of town for awhile, just run away from Port Charles."

Cupping her cheek in his face, he fantasized for a moment what it would be like to hole up somewhere with Maxie for a few days. He knew that his body would ache in the best way possible for weeks afterward, but it would be completely worth it. As tempting as it was, he knew that they just couldn't hide from their lives. This had become their reality. "We might not be able to run away, but we can spend some time alone just the two of us," he revealed. "I have a room above Jake's. It's not much, but Coleman gave it to me when I started doing work for him on the side. Lulu doesn't know that I have it. I've kept it just in case I need to get away. We could meet there sometimes, pretend that we're the only ones that exist."

"You know that we can't hide this forever…"

"I know."

"You didn't let me finish," she cut him off. "We can't hide this forever, but I want to find out where it's going before we let everyone in on our secret. I know that there is something to this, Johnny, or we wouldn't keep coming back to it."

Johnny had never seen innocence in Maxie's eyes, but it was shining there now. She wholly believed what she was saying, and he couldn't help but love her a little bit for it. He leaned in for another kiss, pressing his forehead to hers when they broke apart. "There is definitely something here."

"What is it?"

He wasn't ready to tell her that it was love, but he knew that it was starting to turn into that. It was so much more than he would have ever expected to find in her. She was the antithesis of everything he had wanted for his life – the total opposite of the stable and kind woman he had envisioned for his life outside the mob. However, she was someone who understood him, someone who accepted him, someone who wanted him, someone who needed him. Even more than that, she was someone he understood, someone he accepted, someone he wanted, someone he needed.

"It's us."

"We are kind of indescribable, aren't we?" she smiled. Her little smirk was as brilliant as the warm April sun. "I keep waiting for your charms to wear thin, but you are still finding all these ways to surprise me. My dad is going to hate you. Spinelli is going to be mad at me. You're going to tear my life apart or I'm going to do it to you. You're absolutely perfect for me."

"You're a masochist," he laughed as he listened to her go on about the pain that he could cause in her life. They both knew that she was equally as powerful. However, they both loved the thrill of potential disaster. It didn't scare either of them in the slightest. The only thing that either of them was afraid of was the idea of something real. That was the real fear factor here. "But then again, I have been known to make pain feel good."

They turned the corner to return to the parking lot where their cars were parked side by side. Maxie slipped her hand into his jeans pocket and pulled out his keys. "I'm going to blow off the afternoon," she decided as she turned to face him. "I am going to drive your car across town to this dive bar and head up to a room upstairs. Care to join me?"

"What about your car?"

"We can get it later or you can come back and pick it up. Either way, I am going to drive your car over to Jake's and have a little fun in your room. Unless you want to make this a solo mission, I suggest you make an appearance. I can pretty much promise that it'll be worth your while."

He slid his hand to the back of her bare neck before pulling her hard against his body. "As hot as it is thinking about you making the trip alone, I'm much too selfish not to at least see the show."

"Well, we do have all afternoon. We probably have enough time for me to go it alone and for you to make a companion flight," she insinuated. Johnny stared at her frost lips as she licked them in teasing anticipation. "I'm kind of down for whatever you want."

"My kind of girl," he chuckled as he pulled open the driver's door for her to slip behind the wheel. He jogged around to the other side. Putting the car in reverse, Maxie pressed her red heel hard on the accelerator before pulling out onto the street. She sped the car up even more as the quiet city street turned into the busy freeway. He laughed as the odometer passed the twenty over mark. "Yeah, you're definitely my kind of girl."