I wanted a moment with Larry using feminine charms to persuade someone, and I wanted Rich to be too focused on an objective to remember to be weirded out.

I was having trouble sorting out how to go about this until I decided to make *my* problem *their* problem. Instead of "I need to figure out how Larry should go about this", it became "Larry needs to figure out how to go about this."

And now instead of Rich just being happy with an outcome, he's the one suggesting what to do, which I like a lot more.

I don't know how often "make your writing problem the character's problem" is a viable solution, but I think it worked out here.