Teacher's Girl (Aflyingwhale)

EMMA’s POV : For the first time in eight months, I typed his name into a google search.

A few things came up.

There was an article in The New Yorker about the gallery’s grand opening.

The article praised the exhibition, calling it a creative space for international contemporary art lovers.

There was also a picture of lan and Ally, standing together in front of the gallery with Mayor de Blasio.

They were smiling from ear to ear.

They sure made a great looking couple.

That was painful to see.

The article even called them ' the power duo’, New York's hottest art lovers.

I put my phone down and immediately regretted my decision.

I should have never googled an ex.

Ever.

But I was stubborn.

After my friends went back to the States, I was alone in my apartment again and I was forced to deal with my feelings.

There were still a few days left in the holiday, so I had no excuse to be busy with school or the internship.

In my desperate, boredom stage, I ended up googling his name again.

This time, I found Ally’s social media page.

lan had deleted his Instagram profile ages ago, right around when we started dating.

He wanted to keep himself and his activities hidden from the world.

He also never liked the idea of social media in the first place.

But finding Ally’s Instagram page was like finding a land mine.

Her page was filled with pictures of her and lan.

Ian looked...great, of course.

His hair was longer and his jaw was scruffier.

He wore a lot of suits now and he looked amazing in them.

His tattoos would peak out of his collar and I remembered how much I enjoyed running my fingers through his inked skin.

Ugh! I need to stop! We just entered a new year and this year my resolution was to stop pining over my long lost love.

Stalking his girlfriend’s instagram page wasn't gonna help my case.

I threw my stupid phone on the bed groaned into a pillow.

I'm so pathetic! I can’t keep living like this! I have to do something! Suddenly, I was hit with an idea.

I grabbed my phone again and stared blankly at the screen for a few seconds.

Not wanting to overthink things anymore, my finger tapped the screen several times and I got right to work.

This was probably not one of my brightest moments.

I just download Tinder.

For a while, all I did in that app was swipe people.

Swiping left, swiping right, it was just something to entertain myself.

I wasn’t in any mood to find love, especially not on Tinder in a foreign land.

I was just bored, honestly.

And looking at these guys’ faces on my screen was a safe way to remind myself that there are other people out there.

There could still be a future for me after lan Hayes.

Sometimes the guys I matched with would send me messages and they could be flattering.

They were a great confidence boost, and I would leave it at that.

But some days when I got super bored, I ended up replying to their messages.

I didn't think of much of it.

I only downloaded the app for fun anyway.

But after talking to several guys for a few weeks, the idea of meeting one of them seemed enticing.

"I don’t have to marry the guy, I’m just looking for friends,"

I said to myself.

So one day in early March, I agreed to go on a date with this guy, Olivier.

eyes, and we bonded

to meet at this bar not too far from

that I quickly learned was that people were

on the phone, but as soon as we met that night, all he wanted

to say, it wasn’t a great

thinking

it, what is France famous for? No, not the French fries,

talking about the French

in France was more than

were

that French men were

were masculine French men in the city, but

side

side were often considered

guys were more vocal about their love for

forward or

shoving their uninvited tongue down my

I don't think this gonna

I pushed Olivier

looked at me in confusion as I gathered

"Something wrong?"he asked.

don’t even know where to begin.I smiled politely at him and said, "Sorry, I'm

word, I turned to my heels and walked out of the bar in

and I didn’t feel like walking home alone,

was waiting for my Uber in front of the bar, when suddenly a tall guy in messy dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

looks of it, you could use some of this,"he lent out a pack of cigarettes to me, and

good,

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are

"Georgia originally,"

thought you're from

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

eyes met and we laughed at

his English was pretty good even though

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

his hand out

to pull away, however, he held onto it

tension in the air,

being drop-dead gorgeous, what do you for a living?"he said after a while

on an exchange

my mistake.I thought you are

"Why?"

my eyes

I look at

but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

the one

"What?"

looking Gouda tonight!"he

"Stop!"

my

can keep going all night

both said this joke

met again and we

was a weird moment, like we both somehow

up in front of the bar and I took a

ride, I

"Wait, before you go,"

tracks, pausing for a second before saying, "Don’t tell me if you want me to take

was funny

that, so I just said,

of that night, I did agree on getting dinner with him and he

counting the weird meet-up with Olivier at that bar, I hadn't been on a

a date

remember the last time I went out on a proper

surprisingly a

got dinner at this romantic restaurant by

having dinner, I found out that he was actually a

was it with teachers and me? Anyway, we took a walk along the river after dinner and we

could hold my

asking to hold my

second date, Elliott and I went to the Carnavalet Museum and took a

time we got to the

noticed he was looking at my face a lot throughout the day and when I confronted him about it, he calmly responded with, "I keep looking at your because it’s

kiss

garden

just a

I wouldn't

our third date, we took a day trip to Loire

was a beautiful area with a

tasting in the vineyard and Elliott kept raving about this glass of wine being the

it and he proceeded with kissing me on the lips, parting my mouth open with

was very smooth