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,

agreed to meet at this bar not too far from

dating that I quickly learned was that people were not what they

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

say, it wasn’t a great

naive going into this date thinking that

for? No, not the French fries, they

was talking about the French

France was more than an

and French people were more than willing to indulge

noticed that French men

there were masculine French men in the city,

to embrace their feminine side more openly than

men showing their feminine side

France, guys were more vocal about their love for art and

didn’t care about being too forward or mushy, they

tongue down my

I don't think this

I pushed Olivier by

I gathered my purse and stood

"Something wrong?"he asked.

you have to ask, I don’t even know where to begin.I smiled politely at him and said, "Sorry, I'm just not

I turned to my heels and walked out

like walking home

my Uber in front of the bar, when suddenly a

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

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

I’m good,

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are

"Georgia originally,"

I thought you're from

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

and we laughed at the lameness

pretty good even

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

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

away, however, he held onto it a

tension in the air,

do you for a living?"he said after a while

third year of college.I'm on an

my mistake.I thought

"Why?"

my eyes

I look at you, everyone else

but laugh a

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

You're the one

"What?"

looking

"Stop!"

rolled my eyes

can keep going all night

she said,"we both said this

again and we smiled appreciatively at

like

Uber pulled up in front of the bar and I took a

my ride, I have

"Wait, before you go,"

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

funny

to that, so I

of that night, I did agree on

hadn't been on a proper date with

that as going on a date since

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

was surprisingly a

first date, we got dinner at this romantic restaurant

I found out that he was actually a

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

asked if he could hold my hand and

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

and I went to the Carnavalet Museum and took a walk around

we got to the garden, so the place looked

was looking at my face a lot throughout the day and when I confronted him about it, he calmly responded

kiss

the garden at

was just a

feeling I wouldn't

we took

with a castle, historical towns, vineyards, and fruit

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

I could try it and he proceeded with kissing me on the lips, parting my mouth open

very smooth