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.

a sweet guy with beautiful eyes, and we bonded over our love of

meet at this bar

learned was that

a genuine guy on the phone, but as soon as we

say, it wasn’t

I was too naive going into this date thinking

for? No, not the French fries, they were actually from

about the

was more

like an art form, and French people were more than

that French men

masculine French men in the city, but I was talking about their

to embrace their feminine side more openly than guys

America, men showing their feminine side were often considered gay

vocal about their love

about being too forward or mushy, they only did what

down my throat did not scream romance

sorry, I

said as I pushed Olivier

I gathered my purse

"Something wrong?"he asked.

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

to my heels and walked out of the

like walking home alone, so

bar, when suddenly a tall guy in messy dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes approached

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

could use some of this,"he lent

good,

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

are you

"Georgia originally,"

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

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

at the lameness of that pick-up

his English was pretty good even though

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

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

was about to pull away, however,

in the

do you for a living?"he

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

thought you are

"Why?"

narrowed my eyes at

look

but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

You're the one who's

"What?"

looking

"Stop!"

rolled my eyes at

can keep going

she said,"we both said this joke in

again and we smiled appreciatively at each other’s

moment, like we

of

my ride, I

"Wait, before you go,"

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

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

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

on a

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

last time I

a very

dinner at

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

took a walk along the river after dinner and we talked about everything from music

asked if he could hold my

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 the

sunset by the time we got to the garden, so the place looked extra

noticed he was 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 want to

did kiss

the garden

a short,

a feeling I wouldn't forget

third date, we took

with a castle, historical towns, vineyards, and fruit

vineyard and Elliott kept raving about this

asked him if I could try it and he proceeded with kissing me on the lips, parting my mouth open with the tip of his tongue, and a

very