Love on the Brain

The Grasshopper Experiment

 Rose was finally back from her classes and saw the door of her neighbors' open with Penny standing.

"I swear to God, Sheldon, one day, I'm gonna get the hang of talking to you," Penny said as she turned, hearing the sound of footsteps, "oh, hey! How was school?"

"Usual and same old," Rose smiled.

"His mom's been saying that for years," Leonard smiled at the two girls, "what's up?"

"Well, I finally convinced the restaurant to give me a bartending shift so I need to practice making drinks," Penny said.

"Fuck yes! Alcohol," Rose fist pumped, "I need it after the few events that happened in my life,"

"Oh, well, great, the key to acquiring proficiency in any task is repetition," Leonard said.

"With certain obvious exceptions," Sheldon interrupted while messing with his wallet before looking up, "suicide, for example,"

Leonard walked over to Rose, "what happened? Are you ok?"

"Yeah. It's just this whole thing with Derek and his ex and just bleh," Rose shrugged.

"So, guys. How about it?" Penny asked.

"We'd love to help you, but Raj is going through some stuff right now. And besides, he doesn't drink, so..." Leonard said, but Raj rushed over to Leonard and whispered in his ear, "really? Raj is going through some stuff right now and he'd like to take up drinking,"

The group went over to the girls' apartment and sat down on the stool around the island of the kitchen with alcohol on the table and Penny's "station". They had given her their orders and she had quickly gone to work on them.

"Ok, here you go, Leonard. One Tequila Sunrise," Penny passed the drink to Leonard.

"Thank you, you know this drink is a wonderful example of how liquids with different specific gravities interact in a cylindrical container," Leonard smiled as Penny and Rose looked at him with dumb expressions, "thank you,"

"Ok, Raj, what'll it be?" Penny asked the quiet man.

Raj immediately went to Leonard and whispered into his ear so Leonard told Penny, "whatever you recommend,"

"Oh, how about a Grasshopper? I make a mean Grasshopper," Penny said as Raj nodded with a smile, "Ok? Good, coming up. Sheldon, what are you gonna have?"

"I'll have a diet coke,"

"Can you please order a cocktail? I need to practice mixing drinks," Penny pleaded as she poured liquor in a shaker.

"Fine. I'll have a virgin Cuba Libre," Sheldon said.

Rose laughed a little bit as Penny looked annoyed, "that's, um, rum and Coke without the rum,"

"Yes." Sheldon nodded his head.

"So Coke,"

"Yes," Sheldon took a pause, "and could you make it diet?"

"There is a coke in the fridge," Penny gave up.

"A Cuba Libre traditionally comes in a tall glass with a lime wedge,"

"Then swim to Cuba," Penny stared at Sheldon as she shook Raj's drink.

"Bartenders are supposed to have people skills," Sheldon muttered as he stood up and went to the fridge.

"Ok. Raj, here you go," Penny poured the drink into a martini glass.

"I'd like to try a Slippery Nipple," Howard insinuated.