Maybe it was turning forty that made Simon curious, who knows? He'd never asked about sex before and suddenly he was pestering me about all sorts of things. What did I like? Was there anything he could do better? Did he ever do anything that turned me off? That kind of thing. I didn't have the heart to tell him, but he kept at it. What kind of things did I think about when we made love? He really wanted to know. "I just think about things I've read in books," I told him, "and things we've done together." Actually, that's only partly true, but I didn't want to break his heart. Alphabetical Orders tells the story of the things I really imagine.