Martin shook Don Alston's hand without much hesitation. It is true that somewhere deep in his heart he felt a bit of disgust, but he had already decided to forgive Don for what he wanted to do to him. People sometimes do things without really bad intentions, they just ... don't think rationally at the moment.
Martin and Don will have to work together as colleagues for a while. They will not avoid common conversations and just plain friendly cooperation. They will either reset their accounts or be hostile towards each other, raising questions and doubts among colleagues. And Martin didn't want to explain anything to anyone.
They agreed with Steve that they would not announce to the world that they were a couple, but if anyone asked, they would not deny it. They weren't ashamed of being together and figured they could deal with possible media hype (probably), but Dave's rejection of their relationship was unpleasant and they both had to take time to get used to this type of reaction.
