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, and we bonded

at this bar not too far

that I quickly learned was that

nice in his pictures 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 his tongue

it

naive going into this date thinking that ms nA

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

talking about

France was more than

were more than willing

French men

masculine French men in the city,

to embrace their feminine side more openly than

their feminine side were often considered gay

were more vocal about their

too forward or mushy, they only did

my throat did not

yeah, okay, no, sorry, I don't think

pushed

confusion as I gathered my purse and

"Something wrong?"he asked.

gee, if you have to ask, I don’t even know where to begin.I smiled politely at him and said, "Sorry, I'm just not into it.Have a

for him to say another word, I turned to my heels and

night and I didn’t feel like

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

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

you inside.From the looks of it, you could use some of this,"he lent out a pack of

I’m good,

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are you

"Georgia originally,"

thought you're from Tennessee.Because

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

met and we laughed at the lameness of that

English was pretty good even

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

his hand out

away, however,

in

what do you for a living?"he said after

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

thought you are a

"Why?"

narrowed my eyes at

I look at you,

help but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

the one

"What?"

looking

"Stop!"

rolled my eyes at

I can keep going all

said,"we both said this joke

met again and we smiled appreciatively at each other’s

was a weird moment, like

my Uber pulled up in front of the bar

ride, I have to

"Wait, before you go,"

"Don’t tell me if you want me

funny

to that,

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

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

really count that as going on a date

couldn't remember the last time I went out on

a

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

found out that he

a walk along the river after dinner and we talked about everything from

asked if he could hold my

guy asking

I went to the Carnavalet Museum and

we got to the garden, so the place

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 so beautiful and I want to

kiss

garden at

a short,

I

took a day

a beautiful area with a castle, historical

wine tasting in the vineyard and Elliott kept

on the lips, parting my mouth open with the tip of his tongue, and a slurp of wine poured into my

was very smooth with