People sometimes fail each other.

As Chapter 5 mentioned, people might not do something they should have done or engage in a behavior that they should not have done. Once these transgressions or failure events occur, the person on the receiving end probably wants to hear an account of some form. An account is a message that makes sense of why you acted poorly or did not act well. As this special topic chapter shows, the type of account you provide affects whether or not you can reconcile with the people you fail.