Am i being a dick?

I just wanna preface this I’m not trying to be an ass-hole its just I’ve had some bad experiences with this in the past so I just wanna know if it comes across as a dick move or not.<br><br>so the situation is that my best friend just asked me if I could give them some feedback for their short story. The thing is that they have this habit of when they ask for feedback they always insist on me giving them “brutal honesty”. now if that were all there was to it then thats totally fine. I do the same thing when I asked them for a review of my work in progress.<br><br><br>The thing is that every time I do this, they go on about how im the best most talented writer they know and they go out of their way to flatter me and say that I’m doing them a massive favor by even giving them the time of day never mind a detailed critique of their work.<br><br><br>This is something im very uncomfortable with because it comes off as really really slimy and sycophantic and honestly kind of insulting towards them because it makes me feel like they think that lightly criticizing their work for spelling and grammar mistakes is somehow an act of charity.<br><br><br>my question is should I just shut my mouth and continue letting them do this even though it makes me uncomfortable or do I tell them that I don’t appreciate this. like i said before I don’t wanna come off as an asshole I just wanna be on the same page as my friend and I don’t wanna have to feel awkward every time I give them review.<br><br>how would you handle this if you were in my shoes?<br><br>&#x200B;