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.

beautiful eyes, and we bonded over our love of Harry

at this bar not too far from my

that I quickly learned was that people were not

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

it wasn’t a great

naive going into this date thinking that ms nA im

famous for? No, not the French fries,

was talking about

in France was more than

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

noticed that French men

there were masculine French men in the city, but

feminine side more

showing their feminine side were often considered gay

vocal about their love for art

forward or

down my

sorry, I don't think this gonna

pushed

I gathered my purse and stood up

"Something wrong?"he asked.

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

word, I turned to my heels and walked

I didn’t feel like walking home alone,

front of the bar, when suddenly a tall guy in messy dirty blonde hair and bright

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

saw you inside.From the looks of it, you could use some of this,"he lent out a pack

I’m good,

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are

"Georgia originally,"

thought you're from Tennessee.Because you're

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

we laughed at the lameness of

French guy, his English was pretty good even though his accent

"What's your name?"he asked.

"Emma,"

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

pull away, however, he held onto it a

tension in the air,

being drop-dead gorgeous, what do you for a

my third year of college.I'm on an exchange program,"I said, sounding

mistake.I thought

"Why?"

my eyes at

look

couldn’t help but laugh a

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

You're the one

"What?"

you're looking Gouda tonight!"he

"Stop!"

rolled my eyes

I can keep going

both said this

eyes met again and we

was a weird moment, like

moment, my Uber pulled up in front of the bar and I took a step

ride, I have

"Wait, before you go,"

my tracks, pausing for a second before saying, "Don’t tell me if you want me

funny

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

that night, I did agree on getting

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

as going on a date since we mostly stayed in his

remember the last time

a very sweet

date, we got dinner at this romantic restaurant by

dinner, I found out that he

the river after dinner and we talked about everything from music to

if he could hold my

nice about a twenty five year old guy asking to hold my

our second date, Elliott and I went to the Carnavalet Museum and took a walk

time we got to the garden,

my face a lot throughout the day and when I confronted him about it, he calmly responded with, "I

did kiss that

the garden

a short, sweet

a feeling I

our third date, we took

beautiful area with a castle, historical towns, vineyards, and fruit

and Elliott kept raving about this glass of wine being

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

very smooth with