Pride turns a two-minute “my bad” into a two-week standoff.

The cost of admitting something stays roughly constant while the cost of not admitting it grows. At the start it is a short awkward sentence, and every day of waiting adds a layer, because now there is the original thing plus the silence plus the fact that you clearly could have spoken earlier. Pride is excellent at hiding this arithmetic.

Say the two-minute version today, even if the standoff is already a week old. Do not explain the delay at length. Late and plain still ends it, and the relief is out of all proportion to the effort.