"The doctor will be right in to see you shortly, sir; just have a seat up there, please."
Eric nodded as he stepped up onto the exam table and sat down, the crinkle of the tissue paper filling the room. He rolled down the sleeve of his shirt as the nurse closed the door behind her, sighing. It had taken a lot of convincing to get himself to go to a doctor for this, but he had finally had enough and been fed up. Not to mention frustrated by his own body. It seemed to take some time before the door opened again, but when the young woman finally stepped in, breaking Eric's wandering mind, he determined it was well worth the wait.
"Hello, Mister Sullivan, I'm sorry for the wait. I've had an ocean of patients I've had to wade through today."
"Doubtless all of them have been finding some reason to come see you, Doc, I know I certainly would!"
Her eyes-a gorgeous shade of blue he felt like he could go swimming in-lifted up from her clipboard to meet his, a smile tugging at the edges of her lips. Very, very shapely lips.
"Are you trying to tell me you came in today to waste my time, Mister Sullivan?"
He chuckled.
"Far from it, sadly, Doctor Peterson. I'm afraid I have a very real problem, though you're the first person I've come to see about it."
She looked down at his clipboard as she sat at the little desk, crossing her legs. She was a shorter woman, but her bare legs seemed to go on for miles. Eric found himself wishing that pencil skirt didn't end just above her knees.
"It says here you declined to discuss with the nurse the exact nature of your visit, Mr. Sullivan, so...speak fast, before I move on."
Eric's shoulders sagged a bit, having hoped to engage this woman in some conversation before they cut to the purpose of his visit, but...he supposed she needed to make sure he wasn't just some hypochondriac who had read too much on the internet.
"I uh...well, I seem to be having some...ongoing, continual issues in the bedroom."
She arched one of her dark, perfect eyebrows, and he couldn't deny he didn't have a bit of a thrill as her eyes swept over him appraisingly.
"You seem to be a relatively young man in....well, great physical condition, Mr. Sullivan. Before we go into more details about your issues, tell me. Why did you choose to come here? I've a relatively new practice, and I know I've never had anyone come in here before with that issue, so how were you recommended?"
"Well, to be honest, Doc, I don't normally go to doctors-no need, really-and for this particular issue, I...didn't really feel comfortable going to a male doctor to talk about this kind of stuff."
She smiled fully, this time, sitting the clipboard down as she turned towards him directly, clasping her hands around her upper knee.
"Two things, Mister Sullivan. First, either call me Miss Peterson, or Emily. Secondly, I think we'd better establish right now we're both going to be completely honest and straightforward with each other, okay? This is obviously a delicate situation, but I think it's important we treat this seriously and without judgment, as we're going to be delving into some pretty personal grounds. Would you agree?"
"Absolutely, Emily. Please call me Eric."
She nodded.
"Very well, Eric. So tell me; exactly what kind of problems do you mean. Premature ejaculation? Difficulties developing an erection?"
Eric felt his cheeks fill with heat, but shuffled on the table to the sounds of tissue paper rustling and answered.
"Well, never had an issue with prematurely, not even my first time. But...I guess I do have difficulties with getting and staying hard? The big thing is, I haven't been able to orgasm in over a year."
"God, a whole year; I think I'd die. Do you have any thoughts as to why this may have started happening? Some changes or bad things happening in your life, an experience with a lover? Loss of interest in your wife?"
"Oh, I'm most certainly not married; if I were, I doubt she'd feel comfortable me coming to you, because she'd know you're right up my alley."
Emily smiled shyly, but gestured for him to continue encouragingly when he paused to think.
"I can't really think of anything. I've lived in the same house for a few years, now. Never married, haven't been in a relationship for a couple of years, either."
"Would you say you normally lead an active sex life? Did it change around the time this started happening?"
Eric shrugged.
"It's certainly changed since this started happening, but other than that? I mean I have some friends I like to have sex with, but we have a mutual understanding. Occasionally I meet a woman there seems to be something more than friendship with, but no one who has just...made all others disappear, I guess."
"And these friends of yours-do the girls you enter into relationships with know about them, are they okay with them? Or do you keep them secret?"
Eric shook his head. Emily was leaning forward as she spoke, and he noticed her top, while not low cut, seemed to have wide gaps between buttons. The stethoscope she had draped around her neck was caught on one of them, and it seemed to offer just a hint of something purple underneath as she changed posture and it pulled on the fabric.
"If I'm in a committed relationship, I don't engage with them in that way. I don't hide a thing; I make sure she knows the different girls are my friends, and also so happen to be friends I have sex with usually. If we're moving to exclusiveness, though, of course I wouldn't continue to do so. The reactions are...mixed, but a lot of the time that tells me a lot about that girl than anything else could."
"Hmm. And would you say you could never stop having sex with those friends?"
"Not at all; once, I was even dating a girl where we progressed to that point, where I stopped seeing them and was prepared to be exclusive to her alone."
"And what happened?"
"She, apparently, forgot about that little detail we had agreed upon."
"I see. Tell me; would you say you're polyamorous, or have polyamorous tendencies?"
Eric frowned a bit, a little confused how this related to his problem, but willing to go with it.
"I would say I'm open to that, without necessarily needing it. I feel like as long as a couple are open and honest with what they want and expect of each others behavior, then sex should be whatever they want it to be together. Exclusive? Sure. Together, but open to experiences with others-whether it be both partners, or one, together or separately-as long as both are honest and agree. I've certainly been in relationships where we shared one of my friends, or her friends, and so on. As I mentioned, the opposite, too."
"But only one?"
"Others wanted to move to exclusiveness right away, but...that seems silly to me."
