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.

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

to meet at this bar not too far from

that I quickly learned was

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

it wasn’t

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

famous for? No, not the French fries, they

was talking about

was

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

noticed that French men were

were masculine French men in the city,

tended to embrace their feminine side more openly

feminine side were

about their love for art

didn’t care about being too forward or mushy,

tongue down my throat

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

as I pushed Olivier by his

confusion as I gathered my purse and stood

"Something wrong?"he asked.

know where to begin.I smiled politely at him and said, "Sorry, I'm just not into it.Have

to my heels and walked out

at night and I didn’t feel 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?"

of this,"he lent out a pack of cigarettes to me, and I shook my head

I’m good, thank

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

are you

"Georgia originally,"

you're from Tennessee.Because you're the

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

met and we laughed at the lameness of

was pretty

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

Jacques,"he put his hand out to me

I was about to pull away, however, he

tension in the air,

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

my third year of college.I'm on an

my mistake.I thought you are

"Why?"

my eyes at

look

but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

one

"What?"

you're looking Gouda tonight!"he

"Stop!"

my eyes at

can keep

what she said,"we both said this

again and we smiled appreciatively at

like we

that moment, my Uber pulled up in front of the bar and I took a step towards

my ride, I

"Wait, before you go,"

if you want me to take you out to dinner.Just smile for yes or kick me in

funny yet

to respond to that, so I just said, "You're

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

counting the weird meet-up with Olivier at that bar, I hadn't been on a proper date with a guy other than lan

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

couldn't remember the last time I went out on a proper

was surprisingly a

at this romantic restaurant

were having dinner, I found out that he

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

if he could hold my hand and I

old guy asking to hold my hand instead

second date, Elliott and I went to the Carnavalet Museum

got to the garden,

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

kiss

the garden at

a short,

I had a feeling I wouldn't forget it that

took a day

beautiful area with a

Elliott kept raving about this glass of wine being the best wine

and he proceeded with kissing me on the lips, parting my mouth open

very smooth