I know Y&R’s Billy and Victoria are supposed to be Genoa City’s root-for young couple, but I’ve fallen for J.T. and Mac! And, believe me, it’s a little strange to be saying that…considering that during their last go-round, from 2005-2006, I found them coma-inducing. Rachel Kimsey was Mac at the time, and I spent more time hoping Mac would get together with Kevin than paying one whit of attention to her relationship with J.T.

Four years later, how the worm doth turn! I think Mac and J.T. might just be my favorite GC duo! Since splitting from Victoria, J.T. has regained his edge. He’s not the good little Newman house husband anymore, and his tart one-liners at reckless Victoria’s expense are hilarious. (His reaction to her tramp stamp tattoo? Priceless!) And Mac, whom the show tried to paint as a preachy saint for much of Clementine Ford‘s tenure, has been allowed to come off that pedestal and be human. Together, Ford and Thad Luckinbill have a sweetness and maturity, and a playful sexiness that speaks more profoundly than a dozen rounds of beer pong or games at the arcade. I think I’m just at an age now where that kind of earnest connection affects me more than the gimmicks that Billy and Victoria have been privy to.

J.T. and Mac actually enjoying spending time with Reed, and their playing around coming from those experiences, feels organic. They feel like a family. Billy and Victoria constantly acting like giggly children and then moaning about how watching their kids for the night is SO HARD…? That floored me. As did the fact that they were about to have sex in the living room couch with three kids right upstairs and then seemed irritated at being interrupted to get a glass of water for one tot and take another to the bathroom. God forbid they have to be the mature ones, huh? Also? You have a bedroom with a lock on the door. Use it! I’m over them. (To be fair, I think I was only “under” them for a grand total of five minutes.) The ribald banter, the childish selfishness…it’s better suited to a pair of teens than characters who have been married several times apiece. Conversely, J.T. and Mac feel like a comfortable pair who really talk to each other and understand one another… and their love scene yesterday was sexy without being overt, much like their first time together after she gave birth to the twins.

I frequently joke to my friends that finding my soul mate involves looking for someone who will kill spiders, change light bulbs and reach things on high shelves. That’s the kind of people J.T. and Mac are together. They had a really cute scene a few weeks ago where he bought her towels…and then they had an offscreen sex romp in the shower. That’s proof, right there, that domesticity can be romantic! You don’t have to go chasing after your lost youth to share love and laughs.

originally posted on soapoperaweekly.com