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

to meet at this bar not

about online dating that I quickly learned was that

phone, but as soon as we met that night, all he wanted

it wasn’t

going into this date thinking that ms

for? No,

was talking about

was more than

an art form, and French people were more than

that French men

French men in the city,

to embrace their feminine side more openly than guys in

men showing their feminine side were often considered gay or

were more vocal about their love for

too forward or mushy, they only did what

down my throat

I don't think this gonna

said as I pushed

confusion as I

"Something wrong?"he asked.

begin.I smiled politely at him and said,

him to say another word, I turned to

didn’t feel like walking

waiting for my Uber in front of the bar, when suddenly a tall guy

"Tough night, eh?"he greeted.

"Excuse me?"

looks of it, you could use some of this,"he lent out a pack of cigarettes to me, and I shook

good,

"You are an American?"

"Yes,"

state are

"Georgia originally,"

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

"Only ten I see?"

I laughed drily.

and we laughed at the lameness of

was 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 I took it

away, however,

in

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

of college.I'm on an

mistake.I thought you are a

"Why?"

narrowed my

I look at you, everyone

but

"Are you always this...cheesy?"

You're the one who's

"What?"

you're looking Gouda tonight!"he

"Stop!"

rolled my eyes

can keep going all night

said,"we both said this joke

we

was a weird moment, like we both somehow clicked

pulled up in front of

ride, I have to

"Wait, before you go,"

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

funny yet

to respond to that, so

end of that night, I did agree on

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

again, I couldn't really count that as going on a date since we

honestly couldn't remember the last time I went out

was surprisingly a

at this romantic

dinner, I found out that he was actually a

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

if he could hold my

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

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

the time we got to the garden, so the place looked

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 kiss

did kiss that

garden

just a

a feeling I

we took a day trip

with a castle, historical towns, vineyards, and fruit

did 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 with the tip of his tongue, and a slurp of

very smooth with