When you’re the one who hurt somebody, don’t rush their forgiveness. Just keep showing up different.

Apologies belong to the person you hurt, not to your own relief, and the two get mixed up constantly. Pushing for quick forgiveness asks them to manage your discomfort on top of their own. Their timeline is theirs. What belongs to you is the behavior afterward, which is the part they are actually watching.

Say it once, clearly, with no “but” attached to the end. Then be different in the small visible ways for longer than feels necessary. If they come back, it will be because of that second part, and if they do not, you still became someone who does it.