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.

eyes, and we

at this bar not too far from my apartment

learned was that people were not what they

seemed like a genuine guy on the phone, but as soon as we met that night, all he wanted to do was to

say, it wasn’t a great

going into this date thinking

for? No, not the French fries, they were

about the French

in France was

form, and French people were more than willing to

French

were masculine French men in the

to embrace their feminine side more openly than

side were often considered gay or

more vocal about their love for art and

forward or mushy, they

shoving their uninvited tongue down my throat did not scream romance to

no, sorry, I don't think

as I pushed Olivier

in confusion as I gathered my purse and stood up

"Something wrong?"he asked.

gee, if you have to ask, I don’t even know where to begin.I smiled politely at him and said, "Sorry, I'm just not into it.Have a good

I turned to my heels and

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

Uber in front of the bar, when suddenly a tall guy in

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

you could use some of this,"he lent out a

good,

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

are

"Georgia originally,"

you're from Tennessee.Because you're

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

at the

English was pretty good

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

Jacques,"he put his hand out

pull away, however, he held onto

was tension in the air,

do you for a living?"he said after

my third year of college.I'm on an exchange

my mistake.I thought you

"Why?"

narrowed my eyes

look at you, everyone else

but laugh

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

one who's

"What?"

looking

"Stop!"

my eyes

keep going

what she said,"we both said this joke

eyes met again and we smiled appreciatively at each other’s

a weird moment, like we both

of the bar and I took a step

I have

"Wait, before you go,"

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

funny yet

how to respond to that, so I just said,

at the end of that night, I did agree on

at that bar, I hadn't been on a proper

a

the last time I went out on

surprisingly a very

got dinner at this romantic restaurant by

dinner, I found out that he was

the river after

asked if he could hold my hand and

a twenty five year old guy asking to hold my hand instead of

date, Elliott and I went to the Carnavalet Museum and took a walk

the time we got to the

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

did kiss that

garden at

was just a short, sweet

I wouldn't forget it that

took a day trip

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

wine tasting in the vineyard and Elliott kept raving about this

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

was very