Ford's brows wrinkled in confusion, because the first event he thought of was Cash's wedding, and he'd certainly showed up to that, much as he would have preferred to skip it. It only took him a second to realize they were talking about Black's, though, and he frowned. He felt a surge of guilt, but he was also still confused — because he had come, well before the end of their usual meeting window, and Cash hadn't been there either. He'd always assumed Cash had written him off at that point, but if he knew that Ford hadn't come then that meant at the very least he had still been paying attention enough to ask someone at the club who was there at five o'clock.

"I was late," he said, half defensive and half embarrassed. "But I didn't think you wanted to see me." At the end of the day it didn't just come down to which one of them hadn't shown up at Black's on Monday night; there were very serious things that Cash hadn't told Ford about, when Ford thought they talked about everything. The argument last year had driven a wedge into their friendship, but there had already been cracks in the foundation — Ford just hadn't seen them before that.

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