Page 96 of Passenger Princess

"Oh, don't worry. Hank did the same thing," she says with a laugh. "But once these men make up their minds, it's set."

Ava's lips tip up with humor, her eyes dancing as she turns to me. "This I have learned."

A glass of wine later and some girl talk—Janine's words, not mine—were all it took to get Ava out of her shell, which led to Ava explaining how she spent the first six weeks of her tour trying to “get him to crack.”

Janine giggles. "Oh, I absolutely need details," she says, leaning forward.

"No, I think we're good on details," I say with a shake of my head, ready to cover Ava's mouth.

"Agreed, I don't need any kind of details, and I don't need Janine sharing any details."

Both women laugh, but not for the first time, and Hank and I look at one anotherand sigh deeply.

"So, what are you up to next?" Janine asks, voice sweet. "You've got how many days until you're done?"

"Three," Ava says, nerves in the word as she picks up a fork, pushing some pasta aside. "And I'm not sure. Before all of this." She waves her hand around her. "I was a bartender. I started this all as a way to help out some friends."

"Oh, trust me, I know," says Janine. "I told you, I looked into you."

Ava laughs. "Yeah, well, I didn't think it was going to be much of anything, and it shook my whole world up. But I've always been a go-with-the-flow kind of girl, so we'll see what happens."

"I'm sure Jaime just loves that," Hank says with a snort, and I give him a look to tell himexactlyhow I feel about Ava's go-with-the-flow way of life.

"You know, I saw what you did with those Girl Scouts, teaching them some self-defense moves, then what you did this morning with the pageant girls."

This morning, Ava and I went to the studio Miss California's friend owned alongside about ten pageant contestants and taught them some basic moves of self-defense. Ava had a blast the whole time, teasing me in front of the women and giggling with the girls, but at the end of it all, I think everyone learned some really vital skills in a comfortable environment. The biggest bonus for me was how happy Ava was about it afterward. She seemed more energized and excited than she has been this entire tour.

"That's definitely been a highlight of this tour," Ava says. I knew nothing about self-defense until Jaime decided I needed to learn. It's empowering to feel more confident that I can protect myself, worst-case scenario."

"Have you thought of doing more of that?" Janine asks, taking a sip of her wine. Ava's brow crinkles.

"What do you mean?"

"Teaching basic self-defense, making it trendy. Heck, if there's anyone who could make it fun, it woulddefinitely be you."

Suddenly, Ava's face brightens a bit, and a small smile comes to her lips. "You know, I haven't. But I love the idea of that. I actually had a company reach out to me last week for a sponsorship for a mace keychain."

"Absolutely not," I say at the same time Hank laughs out loud.

"What?"

"Absolutely not," I repeat. "You're not carrying a fucking trial-sized mace around with you on the day-to-day."

Ava turns to me looking annoyed. "Why not?"

"Because you're a disaster waiting to happen, Ava. With your luck, you'll pepper spray yourself by accident, just trying to show someone how it works."

She purses her lips like she wants to argue but can't before she smiles. "You're probably right. What about a taser? They make some really cute pink ones."

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, counting to ten as I do, as if that's going to help with the tiny menace of a woman in front of me.

It doesn't.

Which I'm happy about because I fucking love her, chaos and all.

"Why don't we start smaller, yeah?"

Her lips tip up. "Yeah, that probably makes sense." Then she turns back to Janine. "But I've also had a bunch of people message me every day since Utah, asking if I would think about offering classes near them or in Evergreen Park. I don't think I'd want to have a full-time studio or anything, but today showed me I could do pop-ups or something." She tips her head like she's suddenly building a business plan in there, her lips curving with a smile. "I could probably get them sponsored by different businesses, too. Or maybe even have online videos." She turns to me then. "You'd help me, right?"

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