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.

sweet guy with beautiful eyes, and we bonded

at this bar

I quickly learned was that people

he seemed like a genuine guy on the phone, but as soon as we met

to say, it

too naive going into this date thinking that ms nA im his it wouldn’t go

is France famous for?

was talking about the

was more than an

an art form, and French people were more than willing to indulge in them in

French men were

the city,

embrace their feminine side more

side were often considered

about their love

or mushy,

shoving their uninvited tongue down my throat did

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

I pushed Olivier by his

I gathered my purse

"Something wrong?"he asked.

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

for him to say another word, I turned to my heels and walked out of the bar

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

in front of the bar, when suddenly a tall guy

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

some of this,"he lent out a pack of cigarettes to me, and I

good, thank

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

are

"Georgia originally,"

thought you're from Tennessee.Because

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

at the lameness of that pick-up

his English was pretty good

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

his hand out to me and

was about to pull away, however, he held onto it

tension in the

me, aside from being drop-dead gorgeous, what do you for a

college.I'm on an exchange program,"I

thought you are

"Why?"

narrowed my eyes

time I look at you, everyone else

help but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

one who's made of

"What?"

looking Gouda tonight!"he

"Stop!"

rolled my eyes at

I can keep going

what she said,"we both

again and we smiled

a weird moment, like we

of the bar and

I have to

"Wait, before you go,"

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

funny yet

to respond to that, so I just said,

that night, I did agree on getting dinner with

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

a date since we mostly stayed in his apartment and made

remember the last time

a very sweet

first date, we got dinner at this romantic restaurant by the Seine

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

was it with teachers and me? Anyway, we took a walk along the river after dinner and we talked about everything from music to

asked if he could hold my hand and

year old guy asking to hold my hand instead of shoving their tongue down

the Carnavalet Museum and took a walk

time we got to the garden, so the place looked

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

did kiss that

garden at

a short,

a feeling I wouldn't forget

took

a castle, historical towns, vineyards, and fruit

and Elliott kept raving

me on the lips, parting my mouth open with the

was very smooth