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.

guy with beautiful eyes, and we bonded

at this bar

about online dating that I quickly learned

his pictures and he seemed like a genuine guy on the phone, but as soon

it wasn’t

too naive going into this date thinking that ms nA

for? No, not the French

talking about the

France was more

French people were more than willing

French

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

to embrace their feminine side

their feminine side were often considered gay

more vocal about their

too forward or mushy, they only

shoving their uninvited tongue down my throat did not scream

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

as I pushed

looked at me in confusion as I gathered

"Something wrong?"he asked.

even know where to begin.I smiled politely at him and said, "Sorry, I'm

to say another word, I turned to my heels

feel like walking home alone, so I decided

front of the bar, when suddenly a tall guy in

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

lent out a pack of cigarettes to me, and I

good, thank

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are you

"Georgia originally,"

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

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

at the lameness of

English was pretty good even though his

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

his hand out to me and I took it

however, he held onto

was tension in the air,

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

on an

my mistake.I thought

"Why?"

narrowed my

look at

but laugh

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

one who's made of

"What?"

looking Gouda

"Stop!"

rolled my

keep going

what she said,"we both said this

and we smiled appreciatively at each other’s

moment, like we both somehow clicked

Uber pulled up in front of the bar

my ride, 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 for yes or kick me in

was funny yet

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

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

at that bar, I hadn't been on a proper date with a guy other

again, I couldn't really count that as going on a

last time I went out on a proper

was surprisingly a

date, we got dinner at this romantic restaurant

I found out

me? Anyway, we took a walk along the

asked if he could hold my

was something so nice about a twenty five year old guy asking to hold my hand instead of shoving their tongue

Elliott and I went to the Carnavalet Museum and took

to the garden, so the place

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

kiss

the garden at

a short,

a feeling I

we took a

a castle, historical

vineyard and Elliott kept raving about

on the lips, parting my mouth open

was very