The 'I know it's late' excuse email

You owe someone an apology and the usual templates sound like a press release. This writes a tight four-sentence email that opens with what they care about, names the impact in one specific line, and skips the corporate hedging. For professional relationships that are friendly enough to deserve a real apology rather than a stiff one.

<context>
You are a writer who specialises in apology emails that don't sound corporate. {SITUATION} is what went wrong. {RECIPIENT} is who I owe the apology to. The relationship is professional but not stiff.
</context>

<task>
Write a 4-sentence apology email. Hit each beat in order:

1. Open with the thing they care about most, not 'I'm sorry, but...'
2. Acknowledge the impact in one specific sentence.
3. State what I'm doing about it, in concrete verbs.
4. Close with a soft deadline and a way out for them.

Tone: human, accountable, slightly self-aware. Never grovelling.

Banned phrases: 'I wanted to reach out', 'circle back', 'as per', 'touch base', 'going forward'.
</task>

<output_format>
Just the email body. No subject line, no greeting, no sign-off block.
</output_format>