“Don’t be such a fucking man about this.”

Nic bumped his head against the window as he stared at the red light. Then, he craned his neck to look at his surroundings.

Nope. Still no clue.

He’d left the office ten minutes early to make sure he had time to find Grace Road. And now here he was, stranded in some little suburb of L.A., still clueless.

Nic swore under his breath when he glanced at his dashboard clock. From what he remembered his boss telling him, he was just a couple minutes away now. Yet he’d circled this block twice and couldn’t figure out where the damn intersection was supposed to be.

He really should have paid more attention to writing down directions. Felt a bit like his life at the moment.

It wasn’t like they were hidden away in an industrial park. The turnoff should be obvious. He’d spotted several other charities, a union office, and two coffee shops. Nic had made a mental note of them both as promising spots to work if he needed a spot out of the charity’s office but close by. Assuming he ever found the office.

They also weren’t on the main stretch, from his quick Google Maps search earlier. Another thrill of nervous anticipation went through him at the thought about why they didn’t want to be front and center in this suburb.

He was on assignment with his company, Synergy, to work with an HIV charity. Not just any charity—one dedicated to gay men’s health. Nic drew a deep breath and let it out rather than think about that conversation with his new boss.

He’d finally come out and told Greg that he’d do the job if it would make people at their new client more comfortable to have another gay man around. He’d hinted at it in the hiring interview, so he’d already known Greg was fine with it.

Then there was the other thing—the one nobody knew, and he liked it that way. Nic had only been read as male without fail for the last couple of years. He still had visceral memories of walking into gay bars and having men give him quizzical stares, or worse, having lesbians hit on him.

Now and then, he still had a moment where he felt like an impostor among gay men. He imagined they might, at any moment, see through him to something else entirely—a part of him that never existed.

“Fucking thank you,” Nic breathed out when he spotted a gas station, giving him a place to pull off.

He parked around the side and squinted at his notes.

Turn to Grace Road.

Then there was a splotchy bit, washed out by the minor incident with his morning coffee and a curb. And then… what the fuck did that say? It was a good thing his job involved much more typing than handwriting. He couldn’t even read it himself.

His phone GPS told him where the turnoff to Grace Road was, but not the charity. He hadn’t thought to sign into Google Maps and save the damn place—and his phone was doing that thing where it couldn’t figure out where he was.

All the anxious thoughts racing around his head made his chest tighten until he took a deep breath and released it.

Fuck this shit. I’m going to be an adult about it.

Nic slammed the car door and strode inside, swallowing his pride. Avoiding interaction with people wasn’t worth being late to his first day with a new client, earning Greg’s disappointment.

“Excuse me,” he said as he approached the counter, jerking his chin up in a friendly nod at the attendant. “I’m a little lost.”

“You’re not the only one. You hit the 4G black hole around here?” The guy was young, reddened pock marks dotting his cheeks, and his hair was pulled back in a… man-bun, did they call them? Had to be in his early twenties.

He eyed Nic up and down, and not in a friendly way—maybe taking in his business clothes. He looked slightly more friendly when he looked up again. No wonder. Gas stations were dangerous places to work.

“Yeah, man. My phone just won’t help,” Nic shrugged. “I’m looking for Plus.”

The attendant squinted and leaned on the counter. “The what?”

“The…” Nic tried not to let his cheeks redden. Nothing to be ashamed of. “Gay men’s HIV foundation. The charity nearby.”

“You want to find that, you wanna be down south of State.” The attendant smirked at him, turning to his register. He reached out for something and Nic flinched, tensing up instinctively and checking the exit.

The guy was only grabbing his water bottle. He crinkled it obnoxiously, popping his lips and chugging a few sips.

Fucking relax, Nic told himself, squaring his shoulders again. “South of—?”

“That’s where the street kids curb-crawl. You’ll get it fast enough there. I hear they give them free shit so they don’t get the rest of us normals sick.”

Nic’s jaw dropped. Did he just…?

The attendant leaned on the counter and quirked a brow, his face and eyes hard. He didn’t look away from Nic. Nic had been hanging out with mostly guys long enough to know instinctively what that meant.

He wasn’t going to punch out some idiot behind a register for being ignorant. He had to remind himself of that fact a few times before it sank in, though.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Nic muttered and stepped for the door. His attention was still sideways, keeping the other guy safely in his peripheral vision until he shouldered through the door, out of the gas station.

His hand shook on the car door handle, but he gripped it tight and almost flung it open.

As he dropped into the seat, he shook his head and yanked his phone out of his pocket again. He opened the GPS with a glare. “You better be fucking ready to help now.”

There it was—the blue dot showing him squarely at this gas station. He pressed the directions button, filled in Plus in the “to” box, and held his breath.

“Please drive to highlighted route.”

Finally. Nic buckled up, pulled out of the lot, and spared one more glare at the gas station in his rearview mirror.

He was back on track, however hard the world tried to keep him in the woods.