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 love of

meet at this bar not too

dating that I quickly learned was that people were

a genuine guy on the phone, but as soon as we met

it wasn’t a great

date thinking that ms nA im

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

about

France was more than

French people were more than willing to indulge in them in

noticed that French men were

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

to embrace their feminine side more

showing their feminine side were often considered

France, guys were more vocal about their love for

about being too forward or mushy, they

tongue down my throat did

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

as I pushed Olivier

me in confusion as I gathered

"Something wrong?"he asked.

don’t even know where to begin.I smiled politely at him and said, "Sorry, I'm just not into

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

late at night and I didn’t feel like

suddenly a tall guy

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

looks of it, you could use some of this,"he lent out a pack of cigarettes to me, and I shook my head in

good,

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are

"Georgia originally,"

I thought you're from

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

at

a French guy, his English was pretty good even

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

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

away, however, he held onto

in the air,

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

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

my mistake.I thought you are a

"Why?"

narrowed my eyes at

I look at you,

couldn’t help but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

You're the one who's made of

"What?"

looking

"Stop!"

rolled my eyes at

can keep going

said,"we both said this joke in

we smiled

like we

pulled up in front of the

I

"Wait, before you go,"

for a second before saying, "Don’t tell me if you want me to take you out to dinner.Just smile

funny

that, so I just said,

night, I did agree on

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

on a date since we mostly stayed in his

time I went out on a proper

a very sweet

we got dinner at this romantic restaurant by

I found out that he was actually

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

could hold my hand

twenty five year old guy asking to hold my

Elliott and I went to the Carnavalet Museum and

by the time we got to the garden, so

I confronted him about it, he calmly responded with, "I keep looking at your because

did kiss

garden

was just a short, sweet

feeling I wouldn't forget it

date, we took

a castle, historical towns, vineyards, and fruit

kept raving about this glass

him if I could try it and he proceeded with kissing me on the lips, parting my mouth open with the tip of his tongue, and a

very smooth with