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.

seemed like a sweet guy with beautiful eyes, and we bonded over

meet at this bar not too far from my apartment

I quickly learned was that people were not what they

genuine guy on the phone, but as

say, it wasn’t a

this date thinking that

for? No, not

talking about the

was more than

were

noticed that French men

there were masculine French men in the city, but I was talking about

their feminine side more

America, men showing their feminine side were often considered gay

vocal about their love

about being too forward or mushy, they only did what they

uninvited tongue down my throat did not

no, sorry, I

as I pushed Olivier

looked at me in confusion as I gathered

"Something wrong?"he asked.

if you have to ask, I don’t even know where to begin.I smiled politely at him and said, "Sorry,

for him to say another word, I turned to my heels and walked out of the bar

night and I didn’t feel like walking home alone,

the bar, when suddenly a tall guy in messy dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes approached

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

some of this,"he lent out

good, thank

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are

"Georgia originally,"

I thought you're from Tennessee.Because you're the

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

eyes met and we laughed at the lameness of that

French guy, his English was pretty good even though his

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

his hand out to

was about to pull away, however, he held onto it a second

was tension in the

me, aside from being drop-dead gorgeous, what do you for a

year of college.I'm on an exchange program,"I said, sounding as casual as

thought you are a

"Why?"

narrowed my eyes at

time I look at

help but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

the one who's made of

"What?"

looking Gouda tonight!"he

"Stop!"

rolled my

can keep

she said,"we both said this

and we

weird moment, like we both somehow clicked

that moment, my Uber pulled up in front of the bar and I

I

"Wait, before you go,"

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

funny

know how to respond to that, so

end of that night, I did agree on

meet-up with Olivier at that bar, I hadn't been on a proper date with a guy other than lan since I

a date since

the last time I went out on a proper

was surprisingly a very sweet

first date, we got dinner at this romantic restaurant by the Seine

were having dinner, I found out that he was actually

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

could hold my hand

about a twenty five year old guy asking to hold my hand instead of shoving their tongue down

Elliott and I went to the Carnavalet Museum and

we got to the garden, so the place

the day and when I confronted him about it, he calmly responded with,

kiss

garden at

just a short,

had a feeling I

we took a day trip to

a castle,

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

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

was very smooth with