Hard conversations don’t get easier by waiting. They just get later.

Delay does not soften anything. It adds a layer, so the conversation you eventually have is about the original thing plus the weeks of strangeness that grew on top of it, and now you have to explain both. Meanwhile the other person has noticed the distance and invented a reason for it that is usually worse than the truth.

Give the one you are avoiding a time this week. Two sentences is enough to open it: there is something I want to say, is now okay. The anticipation is nearly always heavier than the actual twenty minutes.