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 our

meet at this bar

quickly learned was that people

nice in his pictures and he seemed like a genuine guy on the phone, but as soon as we met that night, all he

to say, it wasn’t

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

for? No, not the French fries,

was talking about the

France was more

like an art form, and French people were more than willing to indulge in them

that French

were masculine French men in the city,

their feminine side more openly than

side were often considered gay

guys were more vocal about their

care about being too forward or mushy,

down my throat did not scream romance to

no, sorry, I don't think this

pushed

confusion as I gathered my purse and stood up

"Something wrong?"he asked.

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

another word, I turned to my heels and

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

was waiting for my Uber in front of the bar, when suddenly a

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

of this,"he lent out a pack of

good, thank

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are you

"Georgia originally,"

thought you're from

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

laughed at

French guy, his English was pretty

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

you, Emma.I’m Elliott Jacques,"he put his hand out to me and I took

was about to pull away, however, he held

was tension in the

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

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

thought you are

"Why?"

narrowed my eyes at

look at

help but laugh

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

the one who's

"What?"

you're looking Gouda tonight!"he

"Stop!"

my

keep going all night

she said,"we both said this joke in

met again and we smiled appreciatively at each

weird moment, like

in front of the bar and I took

I have

"Wait, before you go,"

"Don’t tell me if you want me to take you

was funny yet

know how to respond to that, so I just said,

the 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

really count that as going on a

last time I went out on a proper

surprisingly a very sweet

at this romantic restaurant by the

dinner, I found out that he was actually

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

could hold my

five year old guy asking to hold my hand instead of

second date, Elliott and I went to the Carnavalet

by the time we got to the garden, so the place looked

at my face a lot throughout the day and when I confronted him about it, he calmly responded with,

did kiss

garden

just a

a feeling I wouldn't forget it

date, we took a day trip to Loire

area with a castle, historical

a wine tasting in the vineyard and Elliott kept raving about this

lips, parting

very smooth