Okay guys, obviously if you have to explain your intent, then as a writer you've failed miserably. So I failed. Good thing I haven't quit my day job huh? ; )
Please let me emphasize that it WAS NOT A DREAM. It was two people struggling in their lives trapped in a state of limbo. Not limbo in the religious sense, but limbo as in stuck in-between two places. Yes, Kate was dead at that point, but not an angel. She was in limbo and while Jack's body lay sleeping he left his body and was also in limbo although he had no idea. It requires a bit of an imagination and perhaps a bit of a belief that there is something more at work in our lives than just the writing on the wall to embrace the concept. That thing doesn't have to be religion, but it's always been my personal opinion that a person has to be awfully full of themselves to not at least leave there mind open to the idea that there is something bigger than all of us at work. Yes it was a love story and the love story was between Jack and Kate and I had it planned from the beginning, but kept the writing from Jack's POV the majority of the time because he had no idea what was happening to him.
Everything that was happening to them was real as far as the state/place they were trapped in, people like Brandi being manifestations from Jack's past, perhaps an old college girlfriend he found himself turning to when things weren't going well, or perhaps a woman that his father was sleeping with that Jack turned on himself, but people like Brandi, Conner, his parents, etc. were all part of this place/state of being they were trapped in and only real in that sense. Kind of like a parallel universe that you control with your hopes, fears and dreams. If you want to go though every chapter and start picking it apart and trying to prove to me why the way I ended it can't be so, go for it. It's fiction and it's a hobby for me, not a job and the odds that I screwed up at some point are good, but trust me, this was the plan all along. I suppose I could've been less lazy about the details, but again, it's just a hobby.
Does it really matter that he doesn't end up with her and live happily ever after? Does that change any of the things that he did for Kate or how he truly loved her or how she truly loved him or how he never stopped loving her? Does every story really need to have the cliché ending in order to leave the reader feeling good?
I knew that most of you would be mad, but I couldn't allow your emotional investment to influence what I wanted to do. I'm sorry you're disappointed and I appreciate your comments.