An Emerald
By: The New Girl Of Lycanthropy

I certainly wouldn't have thought that I'd love an American.

Well, half American. She certainly wasn't proud of it, at least not at the time. But she was still one of the most...obnoxious people I'd ever met. There were many girls in Liberty City, and I could've been with one of them. But they weren't like her. Not in any way. To completely understand though, I suppose I'll have to tell the entire story. It's not a happy one...at least not in the beginning.

"Cousin!"

There went my cousin, shouting for me AGAIN. I was helping him out more at the depot now that Mallorie was pregnant. He needed money and customers, which were fine. But he needed mechanics and drivers to. So here I was, trying to fix his cars, and he's shouting to me every 5 minutes. The asshole.

"Cousin, what is it already?! You've been shouting to me about so many different things in the last 5 minutes, what is it now?!" Roman walked out of his office, and immediately put his hands up.

"Niko, calm down, Jesus. I just want you to meet your new coworker."

I stared at him. "Coworker? Hell, Roman you couldn't get someone to actually work for you unless you knew them, man. You're the most unprofessional guy I know. How would you hire somebody? Or at least somebody competent?"

"Heh, you know what, you're a prick Niko. But no, it's a friend of Mallorie's, and she's competent. Girl could go to college if she wanted, but where's the money? You know what I mean? So know she's stuck here with us." Roman looked like he was telling the truth, so when he motioned for me to go in to the office I followed. "She part American, but Cuban too. Friends with Jacob, you know. She grew up in suburbs, but cities are her thing. Too bad she had to end up in this shithole of home."

I was wondering about this girl. Cuban? Well, she wasn't related to Mallorie then, at least not in this city. Puerta Ricans and Cubans tended to leave each other alone; the way I'd heard it, they had respect for the other but not really friendship. But that didn't matter. What kind of girl would stay here? Stupid, maybe. But she sounded intelligent. Might as well give her a try.

"Does she speak anything? Besides English?" She should at least be able to talk with different people, especially if she was a taxi driver.

"Uh, yeah actually. One of the reasons I hired her. She actually knows, uh...4 languages."

That made me trip over a gallon of gasoline. 4? 4? Are you kidding? "Are you kidding? No way. No girl that would work here could know that stuff."

"Well, she does. And she wants to learn Serbian. She speaks English and Spanish, of course. But she learned French, so that's good with the tourists from Europe. And she knows...uh...Chinese."

This was too good to be true. And Serbian? "....Roman, who is this girl?"

He smirked. "I knew you'd like her, you prick! Wait til you see her, too! Pretty girl. But anyway, her name is Marie. And here she is..."

He opened the door, and the first thing I saw was her back. She was getting a drink of water, and when she turned around she looked surprised. I suppose she didn't expect to see me with Roman.

"Marie!" My cousins was as boisterus as ever, and probably excited that he had a new- and beautiful- employee. "This is the cousin I was telling you about, Niko Bellic!"

I got a first look at her, and even I had to admit she was beautiful. She had a dark brown color to her hair, and it looked natural. Her hair was of the wavy curls kind, even though it looked a little damaged. It was volumus, at shoulder length, and was nicely framed around her face. She wasn't skinny, and she fat either. She had a good build, and a nice body type. Her had high cheekbones, and her eyes were the same dark brown as her hair. Her lips were a little full, but it complimented her.

She gulped down the water, and stuck out her hand out. "Marie Hartman. Nice to meet you."
I shook her hand. So she was used to being polite. She couldn't have grown up here. "Nice to meet you too. So you got hired by my cousin, huh? How'd he convince you too actually do it?"

She smirked, and glanced at Roman. "Well, Mallorie thinks he's nice. Is he really such an ass?" Even though she was smirking, I could tell there was caution in her face. She didn't want to offend him to early on.

But he wasn't offended. In fact, I think he liked that she was so forward. "Nah, just with my cousin. Right, Niko?" He grinned and stretched his arms in front of him, and sighed. "Yeah, I told my cousin here about how you wanna speak Serbian. It would be good, you know, just in case..." he trailed off. He meant to say just in case some Serbs came looking for him.

She raised an eyebrow, and glanced at me. "Really? Well what does he think?" She made me grin, but at the same time a little surprised. She seemed forward, but at the same she knew what to say, and when to say it. Of course, me and her were being quiet for a moment. Which made Roman stare at us both. "Uh, guys..."

I didn't want to be awkward. So I did what came to mind. "Да ли ме разумете?"

She blinked, but recovered quickly. "Uh...mало. I'm still picking it up. How's my accent?"

"Fine." I replied. After that, and awkward silence came over. Roman shuffled his feet, and Marie cleared her throat. After a few moments passed, Roman finally spoke.

"Well, Niko, why don't you show Marie around the city? She hasn't seen Bohan yet, and Mallorie wanted to visit her cousins there too."

Huh. My cousin was actually being smart. "Uh, sure. We'll take one of the cabs."
Roman nodded, then went behind his desk to answer the phone that had started ringing. Marie glanced at me, and then walked out the door. I stared back at Roman. "Roman, cousin, don't tell me you want me to go out with this girl?"

He was talking very fast into the phone, but took it away from his ear for a minute. "Well, if it works...."

Asshole. "You ass." And as I walked out the door, I heard him chuckle.