The person with whom I had an appointment was ten minutes late.

She began, shaking her head, “I’m so sorry. There was a ... “ and then she stopped herself.

She looked at me and smiled. “I’m not going to give excuses. But sorry we’re getting started late.”

And that was that. No excuses. No story. Just on to the work at hand.

I was quite happy. Not that I wouldn’t have listened or been sympathetic. But offering the excuse wasn’t necessary, and it would have put us further behind schedule.

Sometimes, we don’t need an excuse. We just need an apology, or a “thanks for being so patient” and then we can move on to business.