Book 1: Normal Type | Chapter Fifty-Seven: Smuggler and Alien
It was Spirits Night and it was Teddy’s turn with Zera for this holiday in which you were encouraged to dress up in costumes and tell ghost stories. Teddy had them do a themed costume this year, he was a smuggler and Zera was the alien had found on his adventures! Zera loved holidays with her dad because they always made it so much fun! They ate too much candy, watched movies that were maybe too scary for Zera, and giggled all night long!
Book 1: Normal Type | Chapter Fifty-Four: Young and Hip
As Teddy and Jolene’s relationship was heating up, she was coaxing him out of his comfort zone. On weeks that he had Zera, they would go on dates as the three of them to family-friendly locations, but on weeks when he didn’t have Zera, she would drag him out to rave parties and lounges filled with people 10 years younger than him.
He always felt sweaty and queasy at first, but once Jolene was done dancing and would come to sit on his isolated couch or chair with him, they would make out for the rest of the date. He liked this part the best.
Book 1: Normal Type | Chapter Twenty-Nine: Can’t We All Just Get Along?
Teddy was doing his best to keep any and all stress away from Violet while she was on bed rest, but for some reason Cutie and Samson were determined to cause issues every single day. They were fighting like cats and dogs - literally - and Teddy couldn’t figure out why. Were they sensing his nervousness about the baby? Were they worried they were going to be repalced when the baby came? He tried to comfort them and reassure them separately, giving them as much attention as he could. But the majority of his attention was taken by Violet, who needed him for everything and had him going out at ridiculous hours of the morning to satisfy her cravings. Some of her requests were very strange and had him driving an hour there and back, and then when he got home her craving would apparently be gone and she wouldn’t eat what he had just traveled two hours for. The more cynical side of himself wondered if she wasn’t just making up excuses to get him out of the house…
Book 1: Normal Type | Chapter Twenty-Four: Attached
After so much fretting and wondering, Violet finally got her answer. Her baby was healthy, a girl, and her parents were indeed Violet and Teddy Poche. With a huge weight lifted from her shoulders - and therefore permission to herself that she could go back to her usual habits of cheating on her husband - she was a completely different person for the rest of her pregnancy. Teddy threw himself further into their relationship and preparations for their daughter in order to help heal his grief over the loss of his sister.
The result of these two mixtures was a closer than ever couple, they spent every minute possible together. Teddy took off work for every doctor’s appointment and would drop everything at Violet’s call, even if it was just to kill a bug. Violet went to Teddy with anything and everything in her pregnancy, it wasn’t the first time she had been pregnant of course, but this would be Teddy’s first child and she wanted him to experience everything. Every kick, twitch, roll, and whatever else. They had a plethora of ultrasounds stuck to the fridge and spent every weekend working on the nursery bit by bit.
Book 1: Normal Type | Chapter Twenty-Two: Morning Sickness
Teddy wasn’t sure what it was, but now that they were married, Violet’s…needs were off the charts. He hadn’t expected her to be so voracious, and he didn’t dislike it, but he wasn’t always feeling like he could keep up with her. And he didn’t even know about the side pieces she was seeing for exactly the same thing. Despite their remarkable rate of activity, they were both very surprised to find that less than a year after their wedding day, Violet was pregnant.
Violet immediately ordered a series of genetic tests, as she was 36 and therefore a bit old to be having children, it made sense, for the safety of the child. She had her ulterior motives as well, of course, to make sure she knew exactly which father was the father. She waited with fierce anticipation for the results.
Over the next few months, along with the wedding planning, Teddy and Violet were also making arrangements to move in together. They didn’t have to move far, since Teddy was just going to move what necessary furniture he had to Violet’s house next door, and she already had almost everything they needed.
Once he had moved in, Violet found it strange to sleep in bed with him, even though they were engaged. She wasn’t able to sleep that first night at all, instead, she worked on some articles for her column, she worked as an art critic for the local news. The next day, exhausted from lack of sleep, while Teddy was at work, she was surprised to hear the doorbell ring. She was even more surprised to see Lilli, Teddy’s sister on her doorstep.
His siblings each had keys to his old house, but she didn’t want all of them coming into her house unannounced whenever they wanted - this situation was something that everyone respected, even Bliss.
“Oh, hello Lilli, it’s nice to see you, Teddy has left for work already,” Violet began, but Lilli quickly shook her head in the negative.
“I’m not here for Teddy, I know he has to be at work super early, I wanted to give you this engagement gift personally, I made it myself!” Lilli said. “I know engagement gifts are typically for both people engaged, but I wanted you to have something special just for you, as a welcome to our family, I am so excited to have another sister.”
Violet was taken aback by the younger woman’s sincerity and found her heart warmed, she opened the gift to reveal a handmade bracelet with individual letters that spelled out “Poche”. Tears filled her eyes at such a gesture and she gave Lilli a big hug, this was just what she needed.
It was finally time for Teddy to get his justified reward for all of his hard work and time spent studying. The essays, the projects, the late nights, all came down to this. Not only was he graduating, he was graduating with a perfect record! He’d never had a perfect record before! He’d gotten an A+ in every class he had taken at university, which got him an honorable position.
As he stood outside the building where the ceremony would be held, he excitedly met his classmates from the past four years. “Mitchell, I’m so glad we finally made it!”
“Yeah, we did, buddy!” Mitchell happily returned Teddy’s high five. As Teddy turned to talk to someone else, Mitchell turned his head to his friend and asked. “Do we know that guy?”
Luckily, even if Teddy had heard it, he was far too happy to let that bring down his mood. The graduation ceremony was shorter than he had expected, and he didn’t actually receive a real diploma, that would come in the mail later, but he looked very handsome out there, according to Violet.
The new couple decided to celebrate at a packed bar near the university and were surprised to run into Bliss there. She had already clearly been there for a while, based on the way she was slightly tilting back and forth in her chair and the way her words came out like half of her tongue was numb. Teddy and Violet tried to say hello, but she didn’t seem to want anything to do with them, so they just pretended like she wasn’t there at all.
“Now that I’ve graduated and can get a real job, I’ll be able to afford a better place and be more stable, I can finally quit my retail job!” Teddy said excitedly, imagining the future, and perhaps going a bit too far. “Once I’ve saved up enough money, I can buy you a proper ring, and then we can get married.”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth he realized his mistake, Violet had always said she would never get married again, after her experience with her ex-husband. Teddy had planned on easing her into the idea with him, after all, it had taken him a year to get her to agree to be his girlfriend, and now he had potentially just ruined the whole plan.
Before she could respond, Bliss was suddenly in the middle of their conversation. “No way the two of you get married, she’s way too old for you and horrible, she’s a hag, Teddy,” Bliss was interrupted by her own burp before she continued. “You’ve got to get rid of her, she hates animals and she’s stinky, like really stinky.”
This reaction seemed to spur Violet on, who scoffed and pulled Teddy away from his sister. “I think getting married…in the next few years…would be a grand idea, Teddy, I don’t see any other ending with you.”
Teddy could hardly believe his ears, in fact, they were burning red with joy. He’d completely forgotten about Bliss, who hadn’t bothered to follow them and just ordered another drink.
Book 1: Normal Type | Chapter Fifteen: Girlfriend?
Teddy was hard at work each and every day, between his job, his classes, his siblings, his cat, and his kind of girlfriend, Violet, he just didn’t have time for anything else. It had been a few weeks since the topic of becoming an official couple had been seriously broached, and Teddy was delighted to see Violet using her house key for the first time. She entered while he was working on some classwork, glaring at the way he allowed Samson to sit on the table, but knowing well enough to leave it alone.
She ended up staying the night that night, Teddy readily sleeping on the couch with Samson. She didn’t say anything about why she was visiting and didn’t seem to want to talk about anything too deep. Perhaps she just wanted some company, Teddy surmised, and was the perfect host and kind of boyfriend he could be. However, as the hours went on, he became more and more annoyed with her small talk.
The next morning, he decided to be more direct, he fixed them pancakes, and sitting at the table, he found the courage to ask. “Violet, I think it’s time for us to seriously take the next step, not just talk about it. Will you be my girlfriend?”
Violet sat for a few long moments but then smiled. “Yes, Teddy, I think I would love that.”
Elated to have finally passed that hurdle, Teddy presented her with a gift he’d been waiting to give her, a heart-shaped plush he had crocheted, with the initial T on one side and the initial V on the other. She held it close to her own heart and thanked him before she had to leave for work. She promised to be back over as soon as she could.
Teddy felt like he was on cloud nine all day, and after he finished his classwork, he baked a plate of brownies for them to share, preparing a speech about how the brownies represented their sweet love for each other. He changed his relationship status on every social media platform he owned and relished in all the happy reactions it got. He called Stan on the phone personally and talked about it, Teddy was too excited to hear the resignment in his brother’s voice as he broke the news. He didn’t hear from Bliss, but Lilli texted him saying how she was excited for him.
He waited, filling his time with any and every activity he could think of, as the brownies got cold. He texted Violet a few times for updates but never heard back. He stayed up well past midnight, but Violet never came.
She called him the next day to explain that she had ended up staying at work to finish a project and apologize.
