Tomorrow May Never Come

Sighing deeply to himself, Zack looked around the room at all the scantily clad girls dancing to the beat of the music that was filtering through the speakers. His father was seated next to him, and he knew he was supposed to be enjoying himself like any mid-twenties guy would in a strip joint, but he just couldn't. He couldn't draw his mind away from the fact that Kate was in love with someone else for a minute, let alone long enough to watch some big-breasted girl dance on the stage in the back of the room.

"Dad, why are we here?" Zack groaned, looking over at his father.

"Naked girls, Zack... Come on, enjoy it!"

"I don't want to enjoy it!" Zack said as he became even more frustrated, but tried to keep his voice down.

"What do you mean, you don't want to enjoy looking at naked girls?" his father asked, looking over at Zack curiously. "....Is everything...normal?"

Cocking a brow, Zack asked, "Normal...meaning?"

"Uhm...well..." James said, clearing his throat, "Janette may have mentioned something..."

"What did she say?"

"Nothing. Just that you are..." John said, pausing to think of how to phrase what he was about to tell his son. "...in love with someone."

Sighing, Zack put his face in his hands, rubbing his forehead before he took a long drink of the Jack and Coke in front of him. "How does she know about that?" he asked, knowing that no one but Brian knew about his feelings for Kate.

"She's been working for you for years, obviously she'd find out eventually Zack."

"Well you know what? It doesn't matter," Zack answered, taking another long drink. "The love isn't mutual anyway."

"Thank God," James said, breathing out a sigh of relief. It was bad enough that his son was...gay.

Looking over at his father with furrowed eyebrows, Zack was nearly outraged. "Thank God!? I'm telling you that I'm in love, that I want to get married and have children, and-"

"Children?! ...Is that even possible?" James asked, quite alarmed.

"What? Of course it's possible..."

"...True. This is America, after all. Anything is possible," James said, thinking to himself how it was actually possible for a gay couple to have children. Of course, there was always adoption... "Jeeze, could this be anymore messed up? I asked for a daughter-in-law, and I get a son-in-law instead..."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute...son-in-law? What the hell are you talking about?" Zack questioned, looking at his father like he was insane.

"Janette was telling me that you...closet...just never mind," James said, heaving a sigh as he waved off the conversation. Zack sat quiet for a moment, running over in his head what his father was saying.

"...Oh my God, no! No. I'm in love with a girl, dad. Kate. It's all normal. Jesus Christ, dad..."

"Then what's the problem?" James asked.

"It's a long story," Zack sighed, looking down into his now empty glass.

"Well, why don't you tell me the whole thing on the way home. That's why I came to the city anyway. Your mother misses you."

Hours later, Zack and his father drove up to the near mansion his parents owned out on Long Island. Being that his parents were very wealthy, it wasn't surprising when a handful of servants came out to assist them with anything they might have needed.

Entering the massive front hall of the house, Zack was met with his mother, Maria, who was waiting for him. As soon as she saw him walk through the front door, her face lit up with a smile.

"Oh, my son! Zack, I have missed you so much," she gushed out, pulling him into a tight hug, which he returned.

"Hi, Mom." Looking around, Zack noticed that their grand hall was filled with unfamiliar faces, who were busy measuring every corner of the hall. "What's going on here?"

"Oh! Were getting measurements for the decorators. It's our wedding anniversary in a few weeks, and it'll take a long time getting this place decorated so we figured we'd start now," Maria explained, seeing Zack nod as he looked around. He also noticed the sad expression in his eyes. "You look sad. Is something wrong, sweetheart?" she asked.

"Ahh, he's in love with a girl," James answered.

"It's complicated," Zack quickly added, in hopes that no more questions would be asked about his situation.

"Well now that you're home, we can discuss something. We found a girl here on the island, and we think you two would be a great match," James said, pressing the matter further against Zack's inner wishes.

"Forget it, I'm not interested," Zack said hastily, shaking his head. "I'm not going to marry her, or any other girl."

"I thought you said everything was normal?" his father asked, feeling dread rise up in him.

"Everything is normal, dad! I'm not fucking gay!" Zack shouted, heading away from his parents and toward the stairs. "What don't you understand? I don't want to get married if it's not to Kate, okay?"

And with that, he stormed up the stairs and out of sight.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Like she did every day, Kate had gone out to the mailbox to retrieve whatever was there, and as she re-entered the house she flipped through the articles of mail they had received. Stopping at one in particular, Kate read over the envelope multiple times, trying to think of just what was hiding inside it.

"Mom! What is with all these private and confidential letters?" she called out, and a short moment later Denise entered from the kitchen, snatching the bit of mail away from her.

"It's nothing; don't worry about it," Denise answered, though it wasn't the answer Kate was hoping for. She just shrugged it off and continued to rifle through the mail once more. The next thing she found made her scowl.

"Grandma!" she shouted, and Ally poked her head into the hall from the living room. "What did I tell you?"

"What are you talking about?" Ally asked as she approached her granddaughter.

"This," Kate snapped, holding up yet another brochure full of pictures from the marriage bureau. "I told you I don’t want to get married. Why do you keep trying to find me a suitor? That's so out-dated; no one does that."

"Listen, Kate, you are twenty-three years old already. If you don't get married, what will everyone say?" Ally asked, clasping her hands in front of her.

"I don't care what everyone will say or what you'll think! I'm not interested in getting married!" Kate said, trying to prevent herself from shouting at her grandmother

"Why not?"

Sighing, Kate exhaled slowly in attempted to calm herself. "If you are so interested in marriage, why don't you go get married? I'm sure Joe will be ready for that commitment!"

Hearing the noise the two were making from where she was in the kitchen, Denise entered the hall. "Enough, you two!"

"Look how rude she is!" Ally exclaimed to Denise, pointing a finger at Kate "It's all your fault, Denise. If you hadn't been so busy with that stupid restaurant, you would have been able to do your motherly duties and teach your children how to respect their elders."

"I did my duties as a mother but you are forgetting that besides being a mother to my children, I had to be a father as well!" Denise snapped back at her mother-in-law, not wanting to get into another argument revolving around her dead husband once again.

"And whose fault is that?" Ally replied, crossing her arms.

"Both of you, stop!" Kate shouted, reminding the two that she was indeed still in their presence. "You want to talk about duties? It's the duty of a family to teach love. Children in other families have grown up seeing love all around them. But we have only seen your hatred for each other. After Daddy's death, has there been a single day when the two of you haven't fought?" Kate asked, feeling exasperated and tired as tears clouded her eyes. "Who would want to marry into a family with these broken relationships? Who would want to marry me, knowing all they had to look forward to was a broken family?" she asked, blinking the tears away before turning to the door and running out of the house like she always did when her mother and grandmother fought.

Some time later, Kate found herself seated in the same park she always visited, slumped all alone on a picnic table near the water, under the cold gaze of the Brooklyn Bridge. She sniffled as she couldn't help herself from thinking about her father, how life wasn't fair, and mostly of Brian and how much she was in love with him, but couldn't have him.

Quietly, her mother approached her from behind, coming around to take a seat next to her. Sighing, Denise wrapped an arm around her daughter.

"You love Brian, and he's married..." she said, only causing Kate to feel even worse. "Why did you fall in love, Kate?"

Scoffing as that was the second time she'd been asked that, Kate shook her head. "Don't be silly, mom. If I'd known he was married earlier, do you think I would have fallen in love with him?"

"No," Denise answered with a sniffle, causing Kate to turn to her.

"Why are you crying?"

"Because I know you, Kate," Denise answered, more tears arising. "You'll never be able to take this pain. You'll never get over this, and you'll never be happy. You'll never rfall in love again, you won't get married. You'll be all alone, just like me..."

Sniffling herself as she realized what her mother said was true, Kate nodded. "I know."

"What do you mean, you know!?" Denise asked, wiping away the tears from her eyes before they had a chance to fall. "How can you agree with me? You should be telling me, 'No, mom, I will be happy, I will love again,' not agreeing with me."

Silence settled over the two of them for a moment as Kate looked ahead, out over the water toward the Manhattan skyline. Neither she nor her mother realized that, as they had been talking, someone had come up to sit across from them at the picnic table. As they were faced away from the table, neither noticed the visitor.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Kate asked quietly. "I love him, mom. I really love him." Before she could help it, tears were stinging her eyes and she didn't bother to brush them away. "He harasses me, he makes fun of me.... Wherever I go, he follows me. And he eaves drops on everyone's conversations. But I still love him. Why?" she asked, turning to her mother. "Why do I love him? Why is this happening to me? Mom...what am I going to do?"

"Sshh," Denise cooed, reaching up to wipe her daughter's tears away. "Everything will be alright. I know it will. Our angel is looking down on us, even now. He'll make sure that your life is filled with love again.... You'll meet someone, and love them, Kate."

"I don't think I will," she whispered, shaking her head.

"Let's just go home, alright?" Denise asked, and Kate nodded before the two stood and walked ahead, down the sidewalk along the water's edge and toward the exit of the park, leaving Brian all alone at the table they'd been sitting at. He'd heard every word she said, and knowing how crushed Kate felt due to his lie only hurt him more. He knew he had to do something to fix Kate's pain.

Slowly, Brian smiled to himself. Because Brian...had a plan.