I had been seeing him occasionally, in ordinary places and on ordinary terms, and I was still learning which parts of him were real when nobody was watching.

He told me he was continuing to step back from companies he could not oversee responsibly.

I listened, asked questions, and did not mistake intention for proof.

‘You don’t have to spend the evening proving you’ve changed,’ I said as we stacked chairs.

‘I know,’ he replied.

‘I’m trying to live differently whether you see it or not.’

I thought about Walter’s notebook, its neat arrows and repeated instructions to verify facts rather than trust easy stories.

If Vincent continued taking responsibility, time would show it.