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.

guy with beautiful eyes,

this bar

online dating that I quickly learned was that people

and he seemed like a genuine guy on the phone, but as soon as we met that night, all he wanted to do was to shove

it wasn’t a great

too naive going into this date thinking that ms nA im his

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

talking about the

was more than

French people were more than willing to indulge in them

that French men

French men in the city,

embrace their feminine side more openly than guys

their feminine side were often considered gay

were more vocal about their

about being too forward or

down my throat did

okay, no, sorry, I don't

pushed Olivier

looked at me in confusion as I

"Something wrong?"he asked.

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

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

at night and I didn’t feel like walking home alone, so I decided to get an

the bar, when suddenly a tall guy in

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

lent out a pack of cigarettes to me, and I

good,

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

are you

"Georgia originally,"

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

a French guy, his English was pretty good even though his

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

Jacques,"he put his hand out to me and I

pull away, however,

was tension in the air,

do you for a living?"he said

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

thought you are a

"Why?"

my

look at you,

but laugh a

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

one who's

"What?"

you're looking Gouda

"Stop!"

rolled my eyes

keep going all night

both said this joke in

met again and we smiled appreciatively at

weird moment, like we both

moment, my Uber pulled up in front of the bar and I took a step

ride, I

"Wait, before you go,"

"Don’t tell me if you want me to take you out to dinner.Just smile

funny

to respond to that,

end of that night, I did agree on getting dinner

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

I couldn't really count that as going on a date since

the last time I went out on a proper

was surprisingly a very sweet

at this romantic restaurant by

we were having dinner, I found out that he was actually a music

and me? Anyway, we took a walk along the river after dinner and we talked about everything from music

if he could hold my hand and

something so nice about a twenty five year old guy asking to hold my

I went to the

got to the garden, so the place looked

I confronted him about it, he calmly responded with, "I keep looking at your because it’s so beautiful and I want to kiss

did kiss

the garden at

a short, sweet

I had a feeling I

third date, we took a day trip

area with a castle, historical towns, vineyards, and

and Elliott kept raving about this glass of

me on the lips, parting my mouth open with the tip of his tongue, and a

was very smooth with