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

this bar not too

online dating that I quickly learned was that people were not

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 his

to say, it wasn’t a

naive going into this date thinking

what is France famous for?

talking about the French

in France was more than

was like an art form, and French people were more than willing to indulge

noticed that French

masculine French men in the city, but

side more

feminine side were often considered gay or

vocal about

about being too forward or mushy, they

their uninvited tongue down my throat did not scream romance to

no, sorry, I don't think this

as I pushed

I gathered my purse

"Something wrong?"he asked.

to begin.I smiled politely at him and said, "Sorry, I'm just not into it.Have a

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

was late at night and I didn’t feel like

suddenly a tall guy in messy dirty blonde

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

you could use some of this,"he lent

I’m good, thank

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are

"Georgia originally,"

you're from Tennessee.Because you're the

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

at the

English was pretty good

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

put his hand out to me and I

to pull away, however, he held onto it a

tension in the air,

do you for a living?"he said after a

in my third year of college.I'm on

my mistake.I thought you

"Why?"

my

every time I look at

help but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

You're the one

"What?"

you're looking Gouda tonight!"he

"Stop!"

rolled my

keep

she said,"we both said this joke in

again and we

moment, like

pulled up in front of

my ride, I have

"Wait, before you go,"

before saying, "Don’t tell me if you want me to take

was funny yet

know how to respond to that, so I just said, "You're

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

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

couldn't really count that as going on a date since we mostly stayed in his apartment and made

honestly couldn't remember the last time I went out on a

surprisingly a very

got dinner at this romantic restaurant by the Seine

were having dinner, I found out that he

me? Anyway, we took a walk along the river after dinner and we talked about everything from music

if he could hold my hand and

guy asking to hold my

second date, Elliott and I went to the Carnavalet Museum and

time we got to

a lot throughout the day and when I confronted him about it, he

kiss that

garden at

a short, sweet

I wouldn't forget it that

we took

area with a castle, historical towns, vineyards, and

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

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

was very smooth with