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"Jan's the one who's doing something really wrong here," Jordan said. "So if he wants it to continue, he should be the one who's clearing it up with Horace. If he's not willing to tell the truth to Horace, what makes you think he's telling the truth to you? If he'll lie and cheat on a guy who thinks that they're dating very seriously, what keeps him from lying and cheating on you?" He looked sideways at Melvin, a slightly chilly expression in his eyes. "If that matters to you, which I think it might."

"Treat it as a hypothetical, then," Jordan replied. "Something that hasn't happened and won't as long as he's honest about it. Just ... don't let being lonely and wanting company drown out what your conscience is telling you isn't right. It's been a long year," he agreed, "but you're a better man than that."

He thought of the things that he'd heard about Jan doing, the things that he knew for sure the man had done, the fact that Jan had lied about his name and likely about his identity at the least, and wasn't so sure that this was an innocent misunderstanding. But he didn't have any proof, and he didn't think Melvin wanted to hear that.

"It's been a long year," he repeated quietly, mostly to himself. He was pretty sure that he was stronger now for what he'd been through over the past year, but that didn't make it any less turbulent or painful. He had a certain amount of sympathy for Melvin's loneliness, for feeling the ache of needing to lie beside someone and be held, and regardless of whether Melvin's drive to bring Rin back was logical or delusional, he thought he understood it to some degree. What would he have done if what separated him from Rep and Harrison had been death rather than personal conflict? He didn't know. It wouldn't have been a plan to haul them back, not when he knew their nightmares. But he wasn't sure how sane he would have been afterward.

"It's easier to be a better man for someone else than for yourself, sometimes," Jordan offered pensively. "Gives it more weight, maybe. More responsibility." He rubbed absentmindedly at the band of Ferros's ring, following at a leisurely pace.

"Yeah. Is that going to make you give up or try harder next time?" Jordan shrugged and put his hands back in his pockets, scuffing the sole of one boot along the ground as the path began to turn sandy. "Or if it's not for anyone but you, does that make it less worth it, are you going to not do it because nobody else is expecting you to? Or what if it's just you, setting yourself expectations that your partner never even noticed?" He shook his head a little. "It's easier for someone else, maybe, but what do you do if you don't have someone else to live up to?"