Michaela
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
I've met Maya once or twice briefly since I sometimes get asked by Ethan to get him lunch since my work's close.
Last week, on Saturday, we had an end-of-the-week dinner where Ethan invited Maya for the first time.
Our family has a tradition where we invite our partners to dinner only if we're serious, and whenever we do, the whole family has to bring a reasonably decent welcome gift for the new person.
We did it with my husband and my oldest brother's wife.
Apparently, it started on my father's side.
Anyways, after we had dinner and sat on the couch, it was time for gifts.
Everyone gave their gifts and I could tell that she was getting a bit emotional and I summed it up to her just not being used to it.
My turn came and I gave her a royalish blue scarf I had made with a hand-embroidered dolphin on the end of it.
Maya stared at it for a solid five minutes and then started crying, like completely sobbing.
I began apologizing and asking if I did something wrong while my mom got her water and my brother comforted her.
After a bit, she calmed down and said she was okay and that I did nothing wrong, but she left a bit early from dinner with Ethan.
I was truly, like, so confused on what I did that yesterday I called Ethan and asked what was wrong.
He told me that her father died three years ago from cancer and that he, who was also a marine biologist, the reason she wanted to be a marine biologist, used to call her Dolly slash dolphin because it was her favorite animal growing up and still is.
And that his favorite color was also coincidentally blue.
Maya has been depressed ever since his death, and she was so emotional that she ended up crying really bad that night because she loved the scarf.
Maya wanted Ethan to tell me that she didn't dislike me or anything of the sort, and Ethan also thanked me because the morning after, she was grinning all day with the scarf, which hadn't happened in the year that he's known her.