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

at this bar not too far from my apartment

dating that I quickly learned

pictures and 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

say, it wasn’t a

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

think about it, what is France famous for? No,

was talking about

was

an art form, and French people were more than willing

that French men were

the city, but I was

embrace their feminine side

feminine side

vocal about their love for

being too forward or mushy, they only

their uninvited tongue down my throat did not scream

okay, no, sorry, I don't

as I pushed Olivier by his

looked at me in confusion as I gathered my purse

"Something wrong?"he asked.

even know where to begin.I smiled politely

turned to my heels and walked out of the bar in

I didn’t feel like walking home alone,

for my Uber in front of the bar, when suddenly a

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

looks of it, you could use some of this,"he lent

good,

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are

"Georgia originally,"

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

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

laughed at the lameness

guy, his English was pretty

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

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

pull away, however, he held onto it a second

was tension in

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

year of college.I'm on an

my mistake.I thought you

"Why?"

my eyes

I look

couldn’t help but laugh

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

You're the one who's made

"What?"

you're looking

"Stop!"

my eyes at

I can keep

both said this joke

met again and we smiled

a weird moment, like

pulled up in front of the bar

ride, I have

"Wait, before you go,"

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

funny yet

that, so I just said,

agree on getting dinner with him and he did

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

count that as going on a date since we mostly stayed in

remember the last time I went out

a very

dinner at this romantic

dinner, I found out

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

could hold my hand

asking to hold my

to the Carnavalet Museum and took a walk around the

we got to the garden, so the place looked

throughout the day and when I confronted him about it, he calmly responded with, "I keep

did kiss that

the garden

a

had a feeling I wouldn't forget it that

our third date, we took a day

beautiful area with a castle,

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

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

was very