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 over our love of Harry

agreed to meet at this bar not too far from my apartment

learned was

he seemed like a genuine guy on the phone, but as soon as we

it

naive going into this date thinking that ms nA im his it wouldn’t go

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

talking about the

France was

form, and French people were more than willing to indulge

French men

men in the city, but I was talking about their

their feminine side more openly

men showing their feminine side were often considered gay

were more vocal about their love for art and

forward or

shoving their uninvited tongue down my throat

no, sorry, I don't think this gonna

pushed Olivier by

in confusion as I gathered my purse and

"Something wrong?"he asked.

if you have to ask, I don’t even know where to begin.I smiled politely

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

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

suddenly a tall guy in messy dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes approached

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

this,"he lent out a pack of cigarettes to me, and

I’m good, thank

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

are

"Georgia originally,"

thought you're from Tennessee.Because

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

met and we laughed at the lameness

English was pretty good

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

Jacques,"he put his hand out to me

pull away, however, he held onto it a

was tension in the air,

what do you for a living?"he said after a while

still in my third year of college.I'm on

thought you are a

"Why?"

my eyes at

look at

couldn’t help but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

one

"What?"

you're looking Gouda tonight!"he

"Stop!"

rolled my

I can keep

she said,"we both said this joke in

met again and we smiled appreciatively

was a weird moment, like we

front of

I have to

"Wait, before you go,"

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

funny yet

know how to respond to that, so I just

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

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

really count that as going on a date since we mostly stayed in his apartment and made

time I

a very

got dinner at this

dinner, I found out that he was actually

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

asked if he could hold my hand and

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

went to the Carnavalet Museum and

sunset by the time we got to the garden, so

a lot throughout the day and when I confronted him about it, he calmly

kiss that

garden at

was just a short,

I had a feeling I wouldn't forget

we took a day

was a beautiful area with a castle, historical

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

it and he proceeded with kissing me on the lips, parting my mouth open with the tip of his tongue, and a slurp of wine

very smooth with