Why break things off? For heaven's sake, hadn't it been obvious? Ford supposed not, at least not to Macnair, if he was asking about it. He couldn't imagine that Macnair would get any pleasure out of forcing a confession out of him now if he hadn't done so earlier, which meant he really must not have put it all together yet. It was excusable that he might not have noticed when they were together, because it had taken Ford a while to notice it himself. If there hadn't been so many things that happened all at once, he might not have realized it at all. The hand-holding, the yours, the way he felt sitting in his parlor across from Noble with a secret he couldn't share. So Macnair hadn't noticed, fine, but Ford had very nearly come right out and said in when he'd broken things off. Was Macnair being intentionally daft, or did he not remember? Ford had said you make it too easy; how much more explicit could he be without just coming right out and announcing it?

"If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not going to explain it now," he said, shaking his head. Had it been three minutes yet? Where was the person he was supposed to meet, to come and rescue him from this conversation?

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