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.

with beautiful eyes, and we

this bar not too

thing about online dating that I quickly learned

pictures and he seemed like a genuine guy on the phone, but as soon as we met that night,

say, 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 were actually from

talking about

was more than

people were more than willing to indulge in them in

noticed that French men were

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

feminine side more openly than

America, men showing their feminine side were

more vocal about their love for art

or

their uninvited tongue down my throat did

no, sorry, I don't think

as I pushed

I gathered my

"Something wrong?"he asked.

you have to ask, I don’t even know where to begin.I smiled politely at him and said,

word, I turned to my heels and

late at night and I didn’t feel like walking home alone, so I decided to get

suddenly a tall guy in messy dirty blonde hair and bright blue

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

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

good, thank

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are you

"Georgia originally,"

I thought you're from

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

and we laughed at the lameness of that pick-up

a French guy, his English was pretty

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

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

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

was tension in

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

in my third year of college.I'm on an exchange program,"I said, sounding as

thought you

"Why?"

narrowed my eyes

every time I look at you, everyone else

but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

You're the one who's

"What?"

you're looking Gouda tonight!"he

"Stop!"

rolled my eyes

I can keep

said,"we both said this joke in

we smiled appreciatively at each other’s

weird moment, like we both somehow

in front of the bar and I took a

my ride, I

"Wait, before you go,"

me if you want me to take

funny yet

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

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

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

on a date since we mostly

time I went out on

a very

first date, we got dinner at this romantic restaurant

were having dinner, I found out that he was actually a music

a walk along the river after dinner and we talked about everything from music to our existential

could hold my hand and

about a twenty five year old guy asking to hold my hand

I went to the Carnavalet Museum

to the garden, so

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 because it’s so beautiful and I

did kiss that

garden

just a

I

our third date, we took a day trip to Loire

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

did a wine tasting in the vineyard and Elliott kept

lips, parting my mouth open with the tip of his

very smooth with