You can return almost anything with a receipt. Not words. Choose them before you say them.

Most things in life have a way back. Purchases, plans, even decisions can usually be undone with some effort, which is why it is easy to forget that speech does not work that way. Once a thing is said, the other person has heard it, and no apology removes it from their memory. It only sits alongside.

In the next conversation that heats up, take the two seconds before the sharp sentence and let it go unsaid. If something hard does need saying, say the true version rather than the wounding one. Those are not always the same sentence.