As his guests took their first bites, a silence fell over the dining room, followed by a chorus of groans and demands for the recipe. Arthur let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding for two days.
He pulled out his phone and snapped a quick picture of the perfect slice, texting it to Clara.
Arthur spent the next forty-eight hours in a state of high-stakes culinary research. He watched sixteen YouTube tutorials. He read food blogs until his eyes blurred. He bought a digital meat thermometer that looked like it belonged in a NASA control room.
At 6:00 PM, his friends and neighbors arrived. Arthur sharpened his carving knife, took a deep breath, and made the first cut.
The crust was a deep, dark mahogany. The inside was a flawless, uniform, juicy pink from edge to edge.