I'm sorry that I haven't been posting lately. I've been writing a one-shot for a competition I'm entering and trying to keep my ideas for "The Museum of Lost Things" straight in my head at the same time. This is just a little something that came to me.

No copyright infringement is ever intended.

Word prompt: hold

The first time Jasper met Alice, she was sitting on the floor in the men's bathroom. Leaning against a rusty pipe that protruded from the wall with her legs crossed in front of her, she casually smoked a cigarette.

It was all he could manage to grab the nearest wall and splutter at her:

"This is the men's room!"

She breathed out through her nose and tapped loose ash from her cigarette against the underside of the sink beside her head.

"Really. In the three years I've been coming here, I never figured that out."

Her blank stare held just a hint of challenge, but it was enough to make him sweat.

"I - I can't be the first guy to come in and find you here!"

She arched an eyebrow in amusement and examined her nails.

"No, but usually the guys who find me in here don't want to talk."

She met his gaze, daring him to ask her to elaborate.

On that first occasion, all Jasper could do was release his hold on the wall and walk out the way he came in.