Finish the Grignard with Jess

Fancying the short skirt that Jess is wearing today, you decide to {if Jess == 25} stick with {else} go with {endif} the girl with the tan and ass for lab this week. Chris is more than happy to work with Sam, and so the two of you approach the girls with a swagger befitting Sicillian mafiosos.

“Why hello,” Chris says, throwing an arm around Sam’s shoulder. “You look like a girl in need of a guy to carry her through this lab.”

“Is that right?” she asks, giving him a look of wide-eyed innocence.

“In more ways than one,” Chris smirks, and with that, he picks her up bridal-style, carrying her back to your lab bench.

Sam lets out a surprised yelp, the two of them laughing as Chris sets her down again. Meanwhile, Jess looks less than impressed.

“I would never fall for that ploy so easily,” she says, still watching them.

“So you’d say you’re hard to pick-up?” you ask, sensing an opening.

“You’re asking if I’m easy? Of course I’m not easy to pick—”

Jess lets out a squeal of delight as you swoop in, wrapping your arms around her waist and lifting her off the ground.

“Seems like you might have to reassess that statement,” you say, earning yourself a soft laugh from the hot girl in your arms.

“Only because you turned out to be stronger than I expected,” Jess says, clutching your arms as you continue to hold her up.

Her miniskirt is barely appropriate for class, much less this lab environment, and you let your imagination run wild for a moment, thinking of lifting up that skirt, splaying her over the lab bench, taking her right there…

But you set Jess down instead, saying: “Let’s get a start on this lab, shall we?”

Jess stares at you, biting her lip, as if on the cusp of saying something, but then she nods, opening up her lab notebook to check what she’s got to do first.

A couple minutes later, you’ve retrieved last week’s vial from storage. After rinsing it a couple times with ether and lightly shaking it, it’s separated into a dark red ether layer on top and a clear layer on the bottom.

“So… not saying that someone fucked up last week, but the lab manual says the ether layer on top’s supposed to be yellow,” Jess says, giving you the side-eye.

“That’s just the iodine we added to catalyse the Grignard reaction,” you laugh. “But we should restore the color by reducing the iodine to iodine ions. There should be a way to do that…” You take a second to think, looking off to the side and subtly checking out Jess’ ass as you do so. “Got it. Washing it with sodium bisulfate should do the trick.”

You scribble down the relevant reaction in your lab notebook, showing it to Jess. She takes a second to work it out in her head, and by the time she looks back up at you, her side-eye’s long gone, replaced with a sparkle that you’re much more fond of.

“How’d you work that out so quickly?” she asks, clearly impressed.

“State secret,” you reply, resisting the urge to burst into a wide smile.

Instead, you begin working on separating out the two layers in the vial. Jess and you work together well, putting the ether through several rounds of pipetting and washing.

“To isolate the Triphenylmethanol, we’ll need to wash the ether layer a couple more times,” you say, as you prepare an aqueous solution of sodium bicarbonate. “That means a sodium chloride wash after this.”

“One step ahead of you,” Jess says, pulling out a packet of salt from her handbag and setting it on the table.

“Why in the world do you have that on hand?” you ask, giving her a funny look.

“It’s for the tequila,” she smiles, cracking open her handbag a little wider.

You get a peek in there and see that she actually keeps a mini-bottle in her bag, and you shake your head. This time, it’s your turn to be impressed when you look up at her. She’s even got a lime in there!

A couple minutes later, and you’ve finally finished washing the ether mixture. Jess mixes in the anhydrous sodium sulfate into the mixture until it has a relatively low viscosity, and then you work on decanting the remaining ether solution. Once you’re done, you tap Jess on the shoulder.

“Hey, do you happen to keep a hairdryer in that handbag?” you ask, glancing at her.

“I’ve got make-up and hair ties and a brush but… seriously, a hairdryer?”

“Figured I’d give it a shot,” you smile. “We need to apply low heat to evaporate the ether, and the hairdryer’s the fun way to go about it.”

“What’s the not-fun way?” she asks.

“Hotplate on low,” you say.

“Much less fun,” Jess agrees. “You should find us a hairdryer.”

It takes a couple minutes, but you manage to track one down. After evaporating the ether, you’re left with a crude mixture in the beaker.

“So, almost there?” Jess asks.

“We just need to separate out the biphenyl from the triphenylmethanol,” you nod. “But with a bit of hexane, a Hirsch funnel, and the marvellous process of trituration, we’ll be done in no time at all!” You check the mass of the beaker and nod. “The yield’s looking promising, too.”

“Then we’ll have to write the lab report,” Jess mutters. “That shit sucks.”

“Pity that you’re not my actual partner,” you frown. “The TA’s probably only going to accept my report if Chris’ name is on it.”

“Well, you could put his name down, and Chris could submit that copy too,” Jess says, looking thoughtful. “And then I’ll just submit whatever Chris and Jess write up.”

“I’ll go ask them if they’re game,” you say, relishing the chance to spend a couple more hours writing up this report with this hot girl by your side.

Sure enough, Sam and Chris agree to the plan, and before you know it, the three hours for the lab have gone by. Unlike some of the groups floundering around, you managed to finish with the practical portion with about an hour to spare, and you spend the remainder of it flirting with Jess, working out the first part of your lab report.

Jess +25
Sam +10
Chris +5