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.

sweet guy with beautiful eyes, and we bonded over our love of

meet at this bar not too far from my

about online dating that I quickly learned was that people were not what they

but as soon as we met that night, all he wanted to do was to

say, it wasn’t a

this date thinking that ms nA im his it wouldn’t

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

was talking about

in France was more than an

were more than willing to indulge in

that French men were

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

feminine side more

their feminine side

vocal about

being too forward or

down my throat

no, sorry, I don't think this

I pushed Olivier by

looked at me in confusion as I gathered my purse and

"Something wrong?"he asked.

smiled politely at him and said,

to say another word, I turned to my

like walking home alone, so I decided to get an

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

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

saw you inside.From the looks of it, you could use some of this,"he lent out a pack of cigarettes to me, and

good,

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are you

"Georgia originally,"

I thought you're from Tennessee.Because you're

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

met and we laughed at the

a French guy, his English was pretty good even

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

meet you, Emma.I’m Elliott Jacques,"he put his

about to pull away, however, he held onto it

was tension in the

from being drop-dead gorgeous, what do you for a living?"he

of college.I'm on

my mistake.I thought you

"Why?"

my

I look at you, everyone else

couldn’t help but laugh

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

one who's made of

"What?"

you're looking

"Stop!"

my eyes at

can keep

she said,"we both said

met again and we smiled appreciatively at each

like we

pulled up in front of

I have

"Wait, before you go,"

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

was funny

didn't know how to respond to that, so I just

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

on a proper date with a guy other than lan since I

a date since we mostly stayed in

time I went out on a proper

surprisingly a very

got dinner at this romantic

were having dinner, I found out that

we took a walk along the river after

could hold my hand

year old guy asking to hold my hand instead of shoving their tongue

the

was sunset by the time we got to the garden, so the place

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

kiss that

the garden at

just a short, sweet

a feeling I

our third date, we took a day

a beautiful area with a castle, historical towns, vineyards,

kept raving

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

very smooth