After The Storm (Sequel)

Date night

Liliana's pov

"I want for you to know that I really appreciate you agreeing to come to dinner with me tonight," Jackson said as we sat across from each other.

"Yeah, we needed this." I nodded.

"I agree, I know that we've both been busy lately, but I felt like we needed some time to talk about everything."

"Yeah, there's a lot to talk about." I nodded before taking a bite of my food.

"Well I know that things have been hard lately." He said.

"To say the least," I mumbled.

"But I really want for us to work through our problems. The past few weeks have given me a lot of time to think about my actions. I've realized just how wrong I was and I want to show you that I truly sorry I am."

"How Jackson? Because you've been doing a lot of apologizing but there haven't been any actions." I shrugged. Jackson's words sounded good but I needed more than that. I was tired of empty words and promises.

"For starters, I ended my friendship with Maggie." He sighed. "I know that I was wrong for putting her needs before yours. That should've never happened and if you need me to cut off communication with Maggie to move past everything then I'm willing to do that. I would rather lose her as a friend than you as my wife. You are my priority." He said.

"I'm glad to hear that. It would've been nice for you to realize that weeks ago, but it's better late than never." I said.

"I realize that. I was stupid and selfish." He admitted. "That's why I was also interested in doing marriage counseling."

"You, Jackson Avery, want to go to marriage counseling?" I chuckled.

"Why is that so hard to believe."

"You just haven't been the biggest fan of the idea of marriage counseling in the past." I shrugged. After Jackson and I lost George and things between us got tough, he wasn't exactly the biggest fan of counseling at first so it was interesting that he was now the one suggesting it.

"I'll admit I was close-minded in the past, but I really think that we need this to move past everything."

"I'm open to it. I don't know if it'll fix us but I'm willing to give it a chance." I agreed.

"Okay, we can look through our schedules and figure out a good time to set up our first appointment."

"Sounds like a plan." I smiled.

For the first time in awhile, I actually had hope that my marriage might work. We enjoyed the rest of the night and we were able to communicate. It felt like old times, kind of like when we first started dating.

- -

"Tonight, was really nice." I smiled as Jackson and I entered the house.

"Yeah, it was. It felt good to see that smile on your face again." He said. "I actually have a gift I wanted to give you before we end the night." I had noticed the gift bag in his hand and I was curious about what was in it.

"Yeah, I might've noticed the gift bag in your hand." I chuckled as we made it into the kitchen.

"Of course you did." He laughed. "Here you go." He said handing me the bag.

I looked inside of the gift bag and saw a small gift wrapped in there. I grabbed the gift and placed the bag on the counter before I began unwrapping it to reveal a jewelry box. I curiously opened the box to reveal a locket necklace. Opening the locket it contained a photo of Jackson and I. A photo from our first date.