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.

beautiful eyes, and we

meet at this bar not too far

that I quickly learned was that people were not what

looked 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

it wasn’t a great

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

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

talking about the French

France was more

form, and French people were more than willing

that French men

course, there were masculine French men in the city, but I

their feminine side more openly than guys

showing their feminine side were often considered

were more vocal about their love

or mushy, they only

uninvited tongue down my

no, sorry, I don't think this

pushed

as I gathered my purse and stood up

"Something wrong?"he asked.

I don’t even know where to begin.I smiled politely at him and

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

was late at night and I didn’t feel like walking

my Uber in front of the bar, when suddenly a tall guy in

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

of this,"he lent out a

good, thank

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are

"Georgia originally,"

from

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

met and we laughed at the lameness

guy, his English was pretty good

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

Elliott Jacques,"he put his

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

was tension in

tell me, aside from being drop-dead gorgeous, what do you for a living?"he said after a while of

on an exchange program,"I said,

thought you are

"Why?"

my eyes at

every time I look at you, everyone

but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

the one who's made

"What?"

looking Gouda tonight!"he

"Stop!"

rolled my eyes

keep going all night

what she said,"we both

met again and we smiled

a weird moment, like

my Uber pulled up in front of the

my ride, 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 to dinner.Just smile for yes or kick me in

was funny yet

to that, so I

did agree on getting dinner with him and he

that bar, I hadn't been on a

again, I couldn't really count that as going on a date since we mostly stayed in his apartment

couldn't remember the last time I went

surprisingly a very

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

having dinner, I found out that he was

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

asked if he could hold my hand

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

went to the Carnavalet Museum and

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

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

did kiss that

garden

was just a short,

I had a feeling I

date, we took a day trip to Loire

beautiful area with a

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

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

very smooth