"Noah and Mia have always been best friends, and their friendship is the most important thing to them. Life is going great for Noah and he’s up for a promotion in a job he loves. But Mia’s life is on hold as she awaits a kidney transplant. She’s stuck in a dead-end job and, never wanting to be a burden, has sworn off all romance. So when the chance of a lifetime comes to go back to school and pursue her dream, it’s especially painful to pass...

"When thirty-four-year-old Ms. Shibata gets a new job to escape sexual harassment at her old one, she finds that as the only woman at her new workplace—a manufacturer of cardboard tubes—she is expected to do all the menial tasks. One day she announces that she can’t clear away her coworkers’ dirty cups—because she’s pregnant and the smell nauseates her. The only thing is . . . Ms. Shibata is not pregnant. Pregnant Ms. Shibata doesn’t...

"Tidal Shores, a small seaside town in South Carolina, has seen its fortunes nose-dive. But not for much longer! The 'Big Ten' on the town council have come up with a range of ingenious ideas to get tourists flocking back, from buried pirate treasure to beauty pageants, but it's handsome taxidermist Gunner Jones' plan to dupe the public into believing that his creation 'Miss Lucy'--combining the top half of an albino ape with a large goliath tigerfish--is...

"After losing his marriage and his beloved retail plant business, Teddy Hughes is ready to drown his sorrows—or would be, if he could afford another beer in his favorite dive bar. He has no choice but to uproot his dreams and leave New York for good. And then a gorgeous stranger walks in with cheekbones that could cut glass and a confidence that leaves Teddy panting. Like the leather harness he wears under his designer suit, Cole Vivien is a mass...

"A small-time celebrity keeps dying. A Bigfoot hunter and his grandson give presentations on the elusive beast. A disgruntled office drone reaches his breaking point and quits, in the middle of a zip-line trust fall. The characters populating Brian DiNuzzo’s debut short story collection may be eccentrics, but at their core they are struggling to get through life, dealing with unmanageable bosses and tedious jobs, and trying to maintain their interpersonal...