Amelia was preparing for her mother’s visit, not with the warmth of a loving daughter, but with a frozen, supermarket pizza and a bottle of ketchup. This was to be her silent protest, a testament to the bitterness that had found home in her heart.
In the heart of the bustling city of London, in a small flat resided a young lady named Amelia.
Amelia was a woman of strong will, intelligence, and grace. However, she was harbouring a secret resentment towards her mother, Margaret. It was a bitter feeling, rooted deep in her heart, which she did not wish to bring out into the open.
Margaret, blissfully unaware of her daughter’s feelings, had planned a visit to Amelia’s London flat one day. An avid food enthusiast, Margaret loved the idea of home-cooked meals and was eager to taste her daughter’s culinary skills.
Amelia, on the other hand, had a sly plan in mind. She decided to serve her mother a pizza. Not a homemade, perfectly baked pizza that she was more than capable of making, but an undercooked, supermarket-bought pizza. To add insult to injury, she decided to use ketchup instead of traditional tomato sauce.
The day of Margaret’s visit arrived. The flat was tidied to perfection, and the table was laid meticulously. Amelia’s heart was a mix of anticipation and unexpressed anger. As she laid the table, she took the pizza out of the oven. It was undercooked, just as she had planned. The crust was rubbery, the cheese un-melted, and the ketchup stood out like a sore thumb. But, she put it on the table with a smile, waiting for her mother’s reaction.
Margaret arrived, her eyes sparkling with joy at the sight of her daughter. “What’s for lunch, darling?” she asked, her eyes landing on the pizza. Amelia simply smiled and served a slice, her heart pounding in her chest.
Margaret took a bite, her face showing no sign of discomfort. She chewed, swallowed, and then smiled at Amelia. “This is quite unique, love. I’ve never tasted pizza like this before,” she commented, taking another bite.
Amelia was taken aback. She had expected her mother to spit out the pizza, to express her disgust. But here she was, eating it as if it was the best pizza she had ever had.
As lunch continued, Margaret complimented the pizza again and again, much to Amelia’s disbelief. She realised that her mother was pretending to love the awful pizza, to not hurt her feelings. A pang of guilt hit Amelia. Her plan had backfired. She had wanted to make her mother feel the pain she was feeling, but instead, she had ended up hurting herself.
And so, in the silent aftermath of her petty revenge, Amelia understood that the taste of her own resentment was far more bitter than any undercooked pizza could ever be.
All images were generated using DALL.E 2 (Open AI)