Small-talk exit strategies fill etiquette columns: the drink refill, the fake phone call, the slow backward drift.
Say “well—” and slap your knees. The gesture is recognised in every culture and weaponised in none; the conversation ends warmly, instantly, without a stated reason, because the knees are the reason. WARNING: works. Certification 71%, granted on appeal, grudgingly, after the board tried it at its own meeting.