At the end of the day, Jake sat in one of the ice chairs in his hotel room, holding his open briefcase on his lap. There were now seven months accounted for in this project. His teeth chattered as he took a mental inventory of what he had on each roll of film. Besides the whale fins, muskoxen fights, and Kate the Supermodel shots, he also had polar bears attacking each other, a snow bunting riding a reindeer, and the leader of a dog sled team peeing in the snow to name a few. He placed the roll of film from the boating excursion into the slot marked for August.
“You know,” said Kate, as she walked into the room, “if you put the ox fur between your butt and the chair, you might feel a little warmer.”
“You mean you’re not enough to warm me up?” he asked.
Kate grabbed a fur blanket from the corner of the room and threw it on him. He didn’t feel like removing it from his head. Kate uncovered his face.
“I’m proud of you today,” she said.
“Care to enlighten me?”
“You didn’t try to create an action shot with those whales today. I think you’re growing in your respect for nature, and yourself.”
“I think you got in my way. Those whales had no idea what was coming to them.”
Kate pulled the blanket aside, reached for the briefcase, closed it, and slid it back into the corner. She jerked the blanket out in front of her, spread it wide, and covered it around Jake’s body. Jake stood up slightly as she tucked it under his legs. He sat down again, feeling much, much warmer.
“That better?” she asked.
Jake nodded. It was kind of nice for her to act friendlier to him for once. He was sure it wouldn’t last though, so he figured he needed to milk it for as much as he could now.
“Do you think you could also bring me a drink?” he asked. “I haven’t figured out where they keep the refrigerator around here.”
Kate paused. Her eyebrows raised as she looked into his eyes.
“Will you be nice to me for the rest of the trip?” she asked.
“Only if you treat me with unconditional love.”
She paused another moment before answering.
“Okay, I’ll be right back.”
Kate left the room. Meanwhile, Jake softly smiled to himself as he realized what he was getting away with. Here he was in the middle of Santa’s armpit, facing perhaps the coldest journey of his life, and all he had to do was to sit there and wait for a pretty woman to tend to him hand and foot. He thought back to his life in Arizona and how he never had this kind of random luck. Sure, the atmosphere here was bitter cold, and the job he had been given threatened to bombard him with horrible ice cube shots, but he was making the most of it. The fact was that he didn’t have to do anything but stay warm. Somehow he had even managed to bring the art of manipulation into the Igloo Hotel.
She came back a couple of moments later wearing gloves and carrying a glass made of ice. Jake could see that it was holding water, which suited him just fine. Kate handed him one of her gloves, and then handed over the glass. He felt the cold chill of the ice cooling his hand through the glove. He could only imagine how cold the water must’ve been.
“Thanks, Kate,” he said. “You’re my new best friend.”
“You’re welcome.” She had a mischievous look on her face, though Jake did not quite know what she was up to. “So, if that’s it, I’m going to bed now. I’ll see you in the morning.”
He eyed her suspiciously.
“Just that simple?” he asked.
She winked at him.
“Just that simple.”
He shrugged.
“Okay.” He wasn’t sure if he should trust her, given the look she had snuck into the tone of the conversation, but he was willing to anyway. It was too late in the evening to worry about implied meanings.
Jake watched her as she left the room. Almost immediately he noticed her gum like scent disappear and the chill of ice taking over his senses. That was okay, since he preferred to end the night on a good note. With that, he put the glass to his lips and took a sip of really cold water. Unfortunately, the ice stuck to his tongue.
So, that’s what she was hiding, he thought. He’d forgotten that one discussion they had had about science during that boring Save the Penguins gala they attended a year earlier. She knew her stuff, and clearly knew more than he did. After all his thoughts of random luck, he figured that maybe the water wasn’t meant to be so refreshing after all. Score one, Kate, he thought.