The Problem Solver

The following is a complete work of fiction. Disclaimer:

The following story contains erotic situations between consenting adults. If it is illegal for you to read this please leave now.

Any resemblance between the characters and any real life person is completely coincidental. Please do not copy or distribute the story without the author's permission.

I welcome all feedback. You can contact me at the link below.

A shrill ring jolted Matthew Trogdon from a sound sleep. With a moan, he reached out and blindly grabbed for the phone in an effort to silence the nerve-grating racket. It rang four more times before he finally located it. He pushed the talk button, brought it to his ear, and groggily said, "Hello."

"Trog, it's me."

There was only one person in the world who called him by an abbreviated version of his last name, his best friend, Rex Phillips. "Rex? What the hell?" Matthew said as he raised his head off his pillow and looked at the illuminated readout on his bedside clock. It was only noon. He groaned. "Dammit Rex, I was asleep."

"Trog, I'm sorry for waking you, but I really need to see you. Can I come over?" Rex asked, hesitantly.

Concern for his friend pierced his sleep-induced haze. He immediately sat straight up in his bed and asked in a rush of words, "Rex, what's wrong? Is everything okay? You're not hurt are you?"

"No, it's nothing like that. I just have a little problem that I need to talk to you about," Rex was quick to assure him.

Relief flooded Matthew. The thought that Rex had been hurt had scared him more than he wanted to admit. Rex was more than his best friend; the other man was the love of his life. Yeah, that's right, he was secretly in love with his best friend, and he had been since they'd first met. Could he be any more pathetic? Matthew knew that nothing could ever come from it because Rex was as straight as an arrow, as could be seen from the seemingly never-ending parade of women that went in and out of his bedroom. Yet, he still mooned after his best friend like a love-struck teenager.

Shaking himself from his reverie, he replied, "Rex, if you're not hurt, can't this wait till tomorrow? I just got off a forty-eight hour shift at the hospital, the last eighteen of which were spent piecing back together a teenaged boy who was hit by drunk driver who had been celebrating New Year's Eve, and I'm exhausted. I'd only just fallen asleep when you called."

"I know, Trog. I said I was sorry, but I really need to see you. You're my best friend, and you've always been there for me," Rex wheedled. "Besides, this is kind of a medical problem, and don't you doctors take some sort of Hippopotamus oath where you swore to take care of the sick?" Rex questioned with slight humor in his voice.

"It's the Hippocratic Oath, you idiot," Matthew said with a chuckle. Rex always had the ability to make him laugh. It was one of the things he loved most about the other man. "I'm a trauma surgeon remember? Have you been shot, stabbed, or been in a car accident? If not, I can't help you," Matthew stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "Anyway, I thought Helen Robbins was your primary care physician. Can't you go see her tomorrow?"

"I could, but...I just wouldn't feel comfortable discussing this with her. It's kind of embarrassing," Rex replied sheepishly.

Matthew sighed loudly. He might as well go ahead and give in, because he would eventually anyway. He'd never been able to refuse Rex anything. "Okay, come on over, but this had better be good," he said with a slight growl in his voice. After all, he didn't want the other man to think he was too much of a push over, even though he really was.

"Thanks, buddy," Rex stated with relief. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"I'll see you then," Matthew replied, and then hung up the phone.

Emitting a loud groan, he tossed back the covers and hauled himself out of bed. He yawned broadly and stretched his body to loosen the kinks in his muscles. Running his fingers through the thick, dark blond hairs on his chest, he scratched himself briefly, and then padded naked over to his closet to retrieve his robe. After slipping it on and tying it, he walked to his kitchen and started a pot of coffee. He was going to need to introduce some caffeine into his system since he had a feeling it was going to be a while before he would be able to get back to sleep.

As he sat down at his kitchen table to wait for the coffee to brew, his mind began to replay his telephone conversation with Rex. He was starting to worry a little. Rex knew his work schedule, and would have never awakened him if it weren't important. His best friend had sounded intense on the phone, and Matthew hoped the problem wasn't too serious. He loved Rex so much that when his friend was in pain, whether physical or emotional, he was in pain as well.

He'd first met Rex their freshman year in college when they had been assigned as roommates, and the other man had very quickly, though unknowingly, laid claim to Matthew's soul. From the moment they'd first met they were best friends and they became inseparable. Rex had said earlier that Matthew had always been there for him, helping him to solve his problems, but the truth was that Rex had been there just as many times for him. They had always been there for each other, and Matthew hoped they always were.

When he'd finally admitted to himself and to the world that he was gay, he'd been deathly afraid that it would bring about an end to their friendship, but he'd been wrong. Rex had simply hugged him, and then informed him that it didn't matter who he slept with as long as they remained friends. Even though Rex had accepted his homosexuality, he knew that the other man would never return his feelings. He'd long ago reconciled himself to the fact that he and Rex would never be anything more than best friends.

Not that he was complaining; Rex was the best friend he could ever ask for. Six months ago when he'd caught Victor, the man he thought he was going to spend the rest of his life with, fucking another man in their bed, he'd fallen apart. Rex had been there to pick up the pieces. He'd even stayed with him at night when the pain was so great he'd thought he'd die. Rex had slept with him holding him secure in his arms.

After the coffee finished brewing, he poured himself a large cup and then walked into the living room and sat on his loveseat just as Rex let himself in.

Rex closed the door behind him and then looked at Matthew, gratitude evident in his eyes. "Trog, thanks for letting me come over. I really need to talk to you about this. I just couldn't take it any more. I've been in denial, but I've recently come to the conclusion that there's something to this," he said, desperation in his voice.

Fear gripped Matthew's heart and squeezed. Oh God! Could there be something seriously wrong with Rex? He could feel panic starting to rise within him. What would he do if something happened to Rex? Damn! He had to stop this right now. He was a professional, and he had to start acting like one. Rex was depending on him. He took a deep breath to calm himself, looked his best friend straight in the eye, and then with as much calm as he could muster, said, "Rex, sit down and tell me what's wrong."

Rex plopped down on the loveseat next to Matthew and sighed loudly. "Well, it's like this. I haven't been getting any action lately."

"Action?" Matthew asked, perplexed. "You know,action."

Matthew was beginning to become irritated. "Rex, I'm tired. So, would you please spare me the beating around the bush and just get to the point."

"What I'm trying to say is that I haven't been able to have sex lately," Rex replied as his face turned crimson.

Matthew felt his frustration rise to dangerous levels. "You woke me up and got me out of my nice comfortable bed just so you could bitch and moan about the fact that your never-ending supply of women are refusing to put out? Rex, so help me...."

Rex interrupted before Matthew could finish his sentence. "No, Trog, that's not what I meant."

Sighing loudly once again, Rex continued. "Oh, man. This is so hard for me to talk about even with you, Trog. But I've got to talk to someone, and I trust you more than anyone else in the world. So, here goes. When I said I haven't been able to have sex. I didn't mean that the women I've been going out with haven't been willing, because they have. I meant, thatI haven't been able to have sex."

Matthew scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, and then quickly raised them as it finally dawned on him what Rex was trying to tell him. "Are you saying that you're suffering from Erectile Dysfunction?"

"If that medicalese you're spouting means the same thing as me not being able to maintain a boner then yes, that's exactly I'm saying," Rex responded with slight sarcasm.

Matthew's frustration left as quickly as it came, to be replaced with empathy. He immediately understood why his friend was so upset. Not being able to function sexually is something no man wants to even consider, much less experience, and particularly for Rex it must really be a nightmare.

Matthew reached out and placed his hand on top of his best friend's and squeezed gently. "Rex, I'm so sorry. You know it's probably nothing to worry about. All men experience this problem every now and then."

"This is not just an ‘every now and then' kind of problem, Trog," Rex said using his fingers as quotation marks to emphasize his point. "This has been going on for two months now."

"Two months! Rex, why haven't you said anything before now?" Matthew questioned sharply.

Rex shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, I don't know. I guess I thought that with enough time the problem would just resolve itself. But as days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, I knew that something was really wrong. I tried a different woman every night hoping that one of them would make a difference, but that didn't work. I even tried jerking off to porn, but that didn't help either." Matthew shook his head in frustration. Something was not right here. Rex seemed to be taking this very casually. He needed to impress upon his best friend the need to get this taken care of. "Rex, you should have come to me sooner. We need to get you checked out to determine the cause of your problem. We need to make sure it's not physical. Physical etiologies of Erectile Dysfunction can be difficult to treat. Hopefully, your problem has an emotional etiology such as stress because etiologies of this nature are more easily taken care of. Usually...." He stopped mid sentence when he noticed that Rex was smiling brightly.

He couldn't believe it. He was going out of his way to help, and Rex wasn't even taking this seriously. "What are you smiling at? This isn't funny. We need to find out what's causing your problem. There could be something really wrong with you," he stated, irritation mixed with concern in his voice.

Rex's smile broadened. "I do take this seriously. It's just that you're so sexy when you go into physician mode with that brain of yours working overtime trying to find out what's going on so that you can fix it. However, there's no need for you to devote that much time to it, because I've already figured out what's causing my problem, as well as what's needed to fix it."

Confusion raced through Matthew. Did Rex just call him sexy? Yes, he did, and he'd said it in such an endearing way. It caused Matthew's heart to speed up, and he could feel his blood thrumming through his veins.

Suddenly, his sanity returned, and he realized that this was an exercise in futility. He needed to stop this right now. Rex was straight so there was no way the endearment was anything more than that of a best friend.

As soon as his mind cleared from his hormone-induced delirium, it dawned on him that Rex had said something important. "Did you just say that you know what's causing your problem and how to fix it?"

"Yes, I did. I've known what was at the center of my problem for about month now, but I only figured out the totality of it last night. And boy was it a revelation. After my epiphany, I guess you could call it, the solution was easy to see," Rex replied, his blue eyes full of emotion.

"You'll have to forgive if I'm a little confused, Rex, but if you already fixed your problem, then why did you call me?" Matthew asked, his voice betraying more than a hint of sarcasm.

Rex flashed him another smile. "I didn't say I'd fixed it. I said that I had discovered what had caused it, and what will be needed to fix it."

"Okay, I'll bite. What caused your problem, and what do you have to do to fix it?"

"The answer to both questions, and your earlier one of why I called you, is very simple.You."

Matthew's face was a mask of surprise. "Me? I'm the cause of your Erectile Dysfunction?"

"Yes, Trog.You are thecause and thesolution. That's why I called you, woke you up, and asked to come over. As a man, I'm sure you understand why, after two months of not being able to sustain an erection or have an orgasm, I want to take care of this situation as soon as possible."

"No, Rex. I don't understand. What the hell do you mean I'm the cause and the solution?" Matthew asked, his voice jumping an octave.

"Trog, for two months I've suffered with this condition. I've tried everything I could think of to overcome it, but nothing worked. Night after night I dated the most beautiful women, and nothing. Whether I was trying to fuck them, or having them masturbate or suck me nothing happened. I tried porn and fantasizing about my favorite women, but to no avail. I was reaching my wits end."

Rex paused while he shifted himself into a more comfortable position on the loveseat. "But about a month ago I realized that the reason I wasn't able to maintain a hard on was because I really didn't want to. Even though I had been having a lot of sex with all those women, I was lonely. I had plenty of sex, but no real intimacy. I realized that I wanted more. I wanted someone to love, and someone to love me in return. The problem was that I didn't know how to go about it. I thought about all the women I knew, and none of them were someone that I would want to grow old with. I stopped dating completely hoping that some time to myself would help me figure out what to do about it."

Rex drew in a ragged breath. This next part was going to be difficult. He wasn't really sure if he'd be able to get through it. How was Trog going to react to what he was about to reveal? Rex wiped his sweaty brow and then clenched and unclenched his hands before continuing. "But...but, even though I stopped dating I still hung around with you. I started noticing things that I'd never noticed before. Things that made me...a tad bit uneasy. Like how good-looking you are, how your shirts mold to your chest, the way your pants fit...," he said as he glanced nervously at Matthew.

This was turning out harder than Rex had thought it would be. He was so anxious that his palms began to sweat, and he rubbed them on his jeans. "This really hit me out of left field. I'd never thought of another man that way before. Heck, I've seen you naked a couple of times in our dorm room, and I never thought ofyou that way before! Of course, I tried to rationalize it. I was horny, and it was an aberration. But it wouldn't go away. It kept getting stronger and stronger. I found myself starting to fantasize about you, even though I tried not to. I even started to feel the stirring of sexual arousal, but I immediately quashed it. You're my best friend, for god's sake. I'm not supposed to think of you that way," he said, his voice shaky.

Rex swallowed hard. "I was so confused. I had no idea what to do. You're the one I come to for advice, but I didn't know how to talk to you about this. How was I supposed to tell my best friend that I was hot for his bod?" he asked fretfully.

He cleared his throat and continued, "I was starting to get desperate, and then, last night everything came to a head. I'd had several offers on how to celebrate New Year's Eve, but I decided to stay home and hopefully figure out what to do. I wanted to start this New Year out with a new direction for my life. Instead, I sat in my living room wallowing in self-pity. The silence suddenly became deafening so I turned on the TV." He let out a huff of self-deprecating laughter. "As it would happen, it was that sex and relationship advice show on cable, and the host was talking to a woman who had never experienced an orgasm. The expert suggested that the woman masturbate in order to learn what she liked and disliked, and that she should try fantasizing to assist her. The host went on to say that it was important to not put any limits on the fantasy. I decided that maybe I should try that as well."

Matthew's heart had begun to race when Rex confessed that he'd been looking at Matthew in a sexual way. For a brief moment, he allowed himself the luxury of believing that his dreams were actually coming true, but it was only a fleeting fantasy. Rex was straight. Disappointment and melancholy threatened to rush through him, but he pushed it away for now. There would be time to sort through his feelings later. Right now his best friend needed him. Rex was clearly freaked out about the attraction he was experiencing for another man. He needed to be reassured. Deciding it was past time to bring this conversation to a halt, Matthew looked his friend straight in the eye. "Rex, statistics show that the majority of heterosexual men have had homosexual thoughts at one time or another during their lives. On the scale of human sexuality research has shown that most people aren't completely straight or gay, but fall somewhere closer to the middle in either direction. You've been under a lot of stress lately. You're right, the sexual thoughts you've been having about me are just an aberration. You have nothing to worry about, your heterosexuality has not been compromised."

Rex chuckled and shook his head. "I appreciate what you're trying to do, Trog, but you've got it all wrong. The point I'm trying to make is that the expert's advice worked. I started out trying to fantasize about a beautiful, sexy woman, but her image quickly faded away to be replaced by you. I felt myself starting to get aroused, so I decided to experiment. I tried picturing different men who are considered attractive, and my arousal started to fade. I switched my fantasy back to you, and my cock immediately sprang to life. I allowed myself to indulge in that fantasy, and before I knew it my dick was so hard I could've used it for a crowbar. I came harder than I've come since I was a teenager. Trog, you're my fantasy."

Matthew was flabbergasted. He couldn't believe he'd actually heard Rex correctly. He opened his mouth to reply to his friend's outrageous admission, but no sound would come out.

Rex, seeing the state of shock that Matthew was in, plunged ahead. "Trog, the reason I couldn't maintain a hard on with all of those women or the porn was because I no longer wanted them anymore. Last night, when I allowed my fantasies to fly free I finally admitted to myself that it was you I wanted. It's you I want to spend the rest of my life with. It's you I love. I've loved you since I met you, but last night I realized that I'min love with you."

Matthew felt tears begin to form in his eyes. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be real. His best friend was just confused. Sooner or later he would come to his senses and realize that his feelings weren't real, and he would find a nice woman to settle down with. Tears began to flow freely down Matthew cheeks at the dream that had just been offered to him, but that he could never really have. He wanted so badly to grab on to what Rex was offering with both hands and never let go, but he knew that he would only wind up getting hurt. He looked at Rex and said, "I love you, too, Rex, and I know that you love me, but what you're suggesting would never work. Tomorrow you'll realize that you're confusing the love and friendship you feel for me with romantic love, and you'll be horrified at what you've said."