He does pour me a glass of red wine, which is very nice indeed, because I did have a long day at work. Sam never complains about my hours—he always says he thinks it’s cool his wife is a high-power advertising exec. (I’m not exactly an exec, but I don’t correct him.) I’ve overheard him bragging about me, so I guess he means it.

A few minutes later, he emerges from the kitchen with two plates of food. He places one of them in front of me. “Ta da!” he says. “It’s chicken marsala with rice.”

I look down at the chicken on my plate. I chew on my lip. “Is the chicken supposed to be red?”

“Well, I used red wine.”

“It’s just… it’s awfully red.”

He looks down at his own chicken thoughtfully. “Well, it’s not how it looks, right? It’s how it tastes.”

That’s what I’m afraid of.

He watches me as I slice a small piece of chicken off the end. Well, at least it appears to be cooked. Although judging how long it took me to slice through it, I’m worried it’s a bit overcooked.

“It’s not pink this time,” Sam points out. “Score.”

I flash him a thin smile. “Wonderful.”

Okay, here goes nothing.

I say a quick prayer and stuff the piece of chicken in my mouth. The taste of red wine and burnt flour mixed with chicken assaults my taste buds. Sam is still watching me, an expectant look on his face. I want to swallow the damn thing down, but it’s so chewy, I can’t. I’ll be chewing this chicken for the rest of the night.

“Delicious,” I say around bites of chicken.

He frowns at me. “Then why are you making that face?”

“I’m not making a face.”

Sam regards me for a moment. Finally, he slices off a piece of chicken and pops it in his mouth. He has it in there for about two seconds before he starts coughing and spits it out into a napkin.

“Oh, Christ!” he says. “That’s awful! Why didn’t you tell me?”

I shrug. “I was just happy it wasn’t raw again.”

He smiles crookedly. “Thank you for pretending to like it.”

“Thank you for not making me eat it.”

He leans in to kiss me. “Thank you for being understanding that I’m still learning.”

“And thank you in advance for cleaning up the kitchen.”