Parvati sighed and lifted the ice cube to the back of her neck. She relished in the cold, melted trails it left in its wake as she moved it around to her chest and arms.
It was scorching outside. She hadn't realized how absolutely hot it was in the summer in India. They'd never really been before this year. Her parents had decided that during the summer she and Padma were sixteen, they'd go to India to 'see their root's. It wouldn't have been so bad if she were able to concentrate on something else besides the incredible heat.0
If only they could spray the hose on themselves. Or, better yet, maybe it could rain.
"Whoa, there, Vati,"a voice sounded from the doorway. Parvati shifted her eyes only slightly to look at whose hulking frame blocked the light. It was too hot to fully turn her head to see, but Jim's body shadowed just where Parvati was standing. She swore it made the whole kitchen ten times cooler.
"Trying to entice us lonely Americans?" he wiggled his eyebrows at her. She didn't have the energy to roll her eyes.
"It's so god-damn hot," she said and dipped her hand into the lonely freezer to get another ice cube. It was a good thing she and Padma had volunteered to work with the group of Americans who were rebuilding houses in Calcutta. The volunteers had the one freezer within twenty miles. And the ice cubes it made were absolute heaven.
"Pass me a cube," Jim said, flopping down at the table and propping his dusty feet up on the chair next to him.
Parvati grimaced when she saw the dirt on the cushions her grandmother had embroidered so many years ago. If there were only one beautiful thing in this entire part of India, it would be her grandmother's embroidery. Parvati shared an entire trunk full of it at home with Padma. When they were little, they'd pull out saris and scarves, spices and jewels, dress themselves up, and parade around the house. "I'm going to be like Nana when I grow up," Padma had always said. While Parvati had appreciated the beauty of the clothes and had loved to wear them, Padma had seen the brilliance and skill it took to make such works of art.
One such work of art Jim was currently dirtying.
Parvati marched over to the table and shoved Jim's gross feet off the chair.
"Hey!" he cried, nearly falling out of his seat with the upset in his balance.
Parvati raised her eyebrows, daring him to challenge her. "My grandmother hand-made that cushion," she said, crossing her arms.
"Oh." Jim had the decency to look ashamed. "Sorry, darlin'."
She ignored his strange American terms of what she supposed to could mistaken for endearment and sat down across the table from her friend, at a chair where the cushion wasn't covered in ox-shit, dusty dirt, and who knew whatever else could've been on the bottom of Jim's feet.
"What are you doing back so early?" she asked.
"Prabu said I could come back and get water for everyone," he answered, referring to their group leader.
"And you aren't getting water, because...?"
Jim grinned rakishly. "Maybe I wanted to admire a pretty girl before I did. Not so often I get to see you, now is it?"
Parvati rolled her eyes but felt flattered nonetheless. Jim was certainly attractive, something she'd been not-so secretly eying since he arrived a month ago. He was from the 'South', he said, in America. He twanged his words with a drawl that made her heart flutter. It embarrassed her to no end that none of the boys at school could make her want to flirt or bat her eyelashes but some Yank all covered in dirt could just barely smile or wink at her and she wanted to drag him to the altar. "You see me everyday," she pointed out.
"Not near as much as I'd like to," he grinned.
"If you help me cool off, you'll get to see a lot more," Parvati smirked. She held the melting ice cube out to him and enjoyed the way his eyes bugged out of his head at the innuendo in her words before settling back into the sockets.
He gently took the ice cube and reached over the table to run it over her fingers and the backs of her hands, delicately caressing them with the ice.
Parvati bit back a moan. But Jim saw the expression because he chuckled and removed the ice cube.
Parvati's eyes flashed when they opened. She wanted him to put that ice cube back on her burning skin that instant. The air felt torturous without it. It was pressing in on her; she could barely breathe and the only thing that made it better was that damn ice cube.
"I'm thinkin' I need this ice for the water I'm supposed to be gettin'," he said. He lifted himself out of the chair and plopped the ice cube into his nearly empty canteen.
Parvati flushed. She wasn't going to ask him to get another. She had too much pride, not to mention, it seemed like he was emptying the entire ice tray into the three other canteens he was holding.
She resorted to lifting her hair off the back of her neck and fanning herself with her hand. The movement was slow and heavy, but it gave a bit of relief. Parvati closed her eyes, hoping that by blocking out the sunlight filtering through the glassless-windows she'd be cooler.
She jumped when she felt a cold, tendril of water slither down her neck. "Jim," she hissed.
He laughed in her ear. "You didn't think I'd forgotten about you, had you, darlin'?"
Jim brought the ice cube back to her neck, coasting it along her skin, over her shoulders and across her collarbone, where it melted. The dewdrops from the ice lay against her skin, coating it in a slick coolness that relieved just a bit of the heat.
"Aren't you goin' to ask what you can do for me, now?"
She cracked her neck when she whipped it to look at him, staring smugly down at her. "Oh, yes, and what can I do for you?" she snapped.
"Hmm, good question, doll," he murmured, enjoying this way too much. He slid his hands into his jeans pockets and rocked back and forth from his toes to his heels. "I know," he said and looked down at her, slipping into the seat beside her. "You can give me a kiss. I know, I know," he said before she could say anything, though her mouth had opened to utter her rebuttal, "it ain't very original, but I been thinkin' 'bout kissin' that pretty mouth of yours ever since I got here. So do a boy a favor." Jim winked and Parvati's mouth went dry.
She licked her lips nervously and darted forward. She kissed him lightly and sweetly and she would swear that it was the best tasting kiss she'd ever had.
She ducked out from his reach the second his hand came up to caress her cheek.
"Now, now," she said, pulling another ice cube out from the tray, "it's just too hot for that." Her laugh tinkled in the air at Jim's indignant expression.
Parvati placed the ice cube lightly on her tongue, closed her eyes, and thought that there were very nice ways to cool down in India.
She didn't notice when Jim sneaked over and poured half his canteen on her head. But everyone in the village could hear her defiant shriek of "Jim!"