A disagreement is easier to handle before each person has rehearsed a private prosecution.

Silence between two people is rarely empty. Both are running the argument privately, collecting examples and sharpening the phrasing, and by the time it surfaces neither is describing an event any more. They are presenting a case assembled over days. That is why small matters arrive with such force and settle so slowly, and the delay did most of the damage rather than the disagreement.

Raise the awkward thing while it is still small enough to sound trivial. A sentence about something minor bothering you is far easier to answer than a closing statement.