Page 79 of Truly

“Spit it out, Luke.”

“Okay. I need relationship advice, and somehow, you’re the resident expert.”

He snorts. “How do you figure?”

“You have a wife. You haven’t been divorced. And you have a kid. I don’t know how that plays into things—in my case, it doesn’t—but I feel like that gives you a little extra boost, you know?”

“And I’m smarter than the rest of you,” he says.

“And you’re an asshole.”

He looks up with lifted brows.

“I need an asshole,” I say, holding a finger up in the air. “Someone who doesn’t get all flowery with their words, overthink it, or care about feelings much. You’re perfect.”

He rolls his eyes.

“I’ve been seeing an old girlfriend for a couple of weeks,” I say, keeping things as vague as possible. “And I don’t know how to make her understand that, unlike her dad and ex, I’m not here to hurt her. I don’t get off on putting her in her place or hurting her feelings.”

“They did that?”

“Yes, they did.”

“Beat the fuck out of them.”

I laugh, nodding appreciatively. “Okay. Not the question I needed answered, but I like your moxie today.”

“You should’ve seen these damn waffles Kennedy wanted this morning. We had batter and bacon grease everywhere.” He mocks the wood up to the chair. “I came out here because I didn’t want to clean it up.”

“Dick move.”

He stares at me for a moment before going back to his project. “My wife will be properly repaid for her assistance. I promise you that.”

“This isn’t about you. This is about me. Can we focus here? I’m on a deadline.”

“Please proceed.”

“How do I get her to understand that she can trust me?”

“Be trustable.”

“Not helpful, Chase.”

He looks at me through the chair legs. “I mean it. Every time something comes up that you can use to build her trust, do it. Everyone is trustworthy until it’s time to do trustworthy shit.”

“That’s it?”

He sighs. “Look, Luke. I’m not a relationship kind of guy. I might be married, but that’s because Megan is literally the only person in the world that I could be with.”

“That’s how I feel about … my girl.”Don’t slip up. Don’t say her name.

“I don’t have to really work on my relationship with Megan. We have date nights, and I get her flowers on Fridays when I grab pizza on my way home for movie night. But the rest of it is just day-to-day stuff. Showing up. Being the guy I say I am—the man I want to be. Shit like that. If you want her to trust you, show up as the trustworthy guy. Do it consistently, and she won’t have a reason not to believe you.”

“Okay, okay. You’re pretty good at this.”

He shrugs, turning his attention back to the chair.

“I have one more thing,” I say.