The spill was small. The story you made up to hide it is what they’ll remember.

Small problems attract disproportionate stories, and the story is what people remember. Nobody carries a grudge about a spill. What stays is the discovery that you were willing to invent something over almost nothing, because that raises a much larger question about everything else you have said.

When something minor goes wrong, resist the reflex to explain it into somebody else’s lap. It was me, sorry, I will clean it up takes four seconds and ends the matter completely. The cover is almost always more expensive than the thing it covers.