“I have no idea what I’m doing.”

When Emma was twenty-two, she joined the navy. When her tour was over, she journeyed out to New York City to find her fame and fortune as a comic book artist. It was not a smooth journey, fraught on all sides by difficult people, awkwardness, and mindless jobs, but along the way, she was rewarded with laughs and steamy eroticism. This collection of short stories brings you just some of the adventures encountered by Emma Dayton, the heroine of The Grind, as she grows into adulthood from her beginnings as an irresponsible woman-child.

In “Duty Calls,” the day before she ships out with the navy, Emma finally has a chance with her workplace crush. In “Itch,” freshly New York Emma meets a new coworker she must have at all cost. In “Lost and Found,” Emma meets her boss’s uptight assistant, and one thing leads to another. In “Issues,” Emma goes to a comic book convention, only to have it ruined by her arch-nemesis. In “Mixed Nuptials,” Emma returns home to Ohio for her sister’s wedding and grapples with her date, who is also her nemesis. In “Jayus,” she realizes that her good friend doesn’t have the same sense of humor as she does. In “Work Flow,” Emma must deal with a swear jar, as well as a missing desk, stapler, and a chair, all to make a new friend. In “Pop,” Emma and her boyfriend are relaxing on a lazy afternoon, and one thing leads to another. And finally, in “Souvenir,” Emma’s husband’s past comes back to haunt him and threaten their marriage.