They sat on a bench along the bike path beneath the Verrazano Bridge. Emily tucked herself against Evan's side and he draped his arm across her shoulders.

Wispy white clouds and whirling grey seagulls dotted the cerulean expanse above them. The steel blue water was speckled with gently gliding boats. Emily ignored the elegant sailboats and studied the sturdy little tugboats. They were hard at work, pulling massive barges through the narrows.

Beside her, Evan took another bite of his everything bagel. "Now I know why my Mom still talks about them despite being in Jersey for the past twenty-five years."

A glob of cream cheese remained at the corner of his mouth. Emily reached over and wiped it off. His tongue chased the path of her thumb. "Thanks," he garbled through his full mouth. She nodded and wiped her thumb on her napkin.

He swallowed before asking, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Emily bit at the straw in her empty orange juice container. She mumbled, "I messed up... I'm messed up," with the straw still clenched between her teeth.

Evan held the last bite of his breakfast in his hand. "How?"

Emily put down the empty carton. "In too many ways. I don't know where to start."

"At the beginning." He popped the final piece into his mouth.

But that's too far back... Too much for one day... Too sad... Too scary...

So instead she told him about the camp and the stash of money. Then she told him about sharing the joint with Kelly at the dance. However, she left out a few key details there, like the part about Peter, her diagnosis and the meltdown.

Technically, it's not lying by saying that I had a disagreement with Jenny and got upset...

And of course she didn't go into all of the particulars about how Kelly helped her calm down.

I'm pretty sure that Evan can figure that out...

Finally, she recounted her mother's reaction to her discoveries earlier that morning. Evan listened in that absorbed way of his. Only occasionally did he take his eyes away from her to watch the elderly man, who fished along the fence near them, as he cast his lines out into the current.

When Emily finished speaking, Evan sat for a minute watching the fisherman. "Well if you want my advice, which I'm not sure that you do..."

Emily laughed nervously and glanced at him. Evan continued with a sad smile on his face. "I think you know what I would say about the Kelly stuff."

Emily pulled at the strings of her cut-offs and avoided his face. "Do I?" she whispered.

Evan sighed. At first he started speaking gently, "I would say... Pick me." Then he raised his voice and became more emphatic, "Pick me because I don't need you to dull yourself or dumb down your brain to be with me!"

She looked up at him then. Evan looked her directly in the eyes again and Emily didn't turn away. He lowered his voice again. "Smoking will always be part of the equation with Kelly."

Emily searched his eyes again. There were spots of cerulean and steel in them now.

Is he right? Is Kelly trying to dial back the intensity that he said he wasn't afraid of?

Evan continued, "And as far as the camp stuff, you should ask your Dad for the money. He just handed your brother a car last year for nothing."

Emily looked back down to the frayed edge on her thighs. She unraveled a thread and stretched it taut with her fingers. "You can't always get what you want..."

"But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." Evan said, finishing the quote.

Should have known he'd recognize The Rolling Stones...

The cotton thread broke between her fingers. Emily twirled the two pieces, one in each hand before she dropped them to let the breeze carry them off.

"So what do you need Emily?" he asked.

She shrugged her shoulders.

Evan reached out and touched the arrow necklace at her throat. "Do you know about the arrow of time?"

She shook her head. He ran his finger along the chain on her collarbone. Emily's skin prickled pleasantly.

"An astronomer named Eddington came up with this theory in the 1920s. He said that time is like an arrow, and as it progresses, it increases the randomness around us. It relates to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which tells us that in an isolated system, entropy, or the probability of chaos always increases."

Evan now held the charm in his hand. Emily put her hand on top of his and searched his eyes again. "So you're telling me that life will only get more complicated. Well, that's not very reassuring."

Evan smiled. "It can be." He let go of the necklace and interlaced his fingers with hers.

"How?" she whispered.

He leaned his forehead against hers and said, "It means you're not alone in the chaos."

Emily rubbed her nose against his. "I'm glad you're a science geek."

Then she kissed him and Evan smiled. "Me too."

They left the bench and walked up the hill towards the car. Earlier they found a spot along the side of the park nestled at the top.

"That's quite the cannon," Evan said as he ran his hand along the glossy, black side of the fifty-eight ton Rodman gun perched there, aimed at the water.

Emily climbed on top of one of the stacks of twenty inch cannonballs. "That's why everybody calls this Cannonball Park."

Evan held her hand as she stood balanced for a minute.

"Calls it?" he asked.

She jumped down. "All the parks have nicknames from the people that grew up here. There's Pigeon Park, Moon Man, Rubber Park, Wood Park. I couldn't even tell you what most of their actual names are. I do happen to know this one's though."

A squirrel ran across the grass in front of them. "So... what is it actually named?" he asked.

"John Paul Jones Park." She smiled.

Evan laughed. "After the bassist from Led Zeppelin?"

Emily held his hand and led him to a large boulder further in the park. "No, after a Revolutionary War naval hero. Although he really had nothing to do with Brooklyn. But you are standing on the historic soil of the Battle of Brooklyn."

She pointed at the rock. Evan read the plaque aloud. "To commemorate the first resistance made to British Arms in New York State. August 1778."

They turned toward the granite obelisk behind them. Emily looked up at it. "And that's a World War I memorial. The cannon's from the Civil War. I guess we appreciate a good fight in Brooklyn."

Evan squeezed her hand. "Eclectic mix."

The way he said the word reminded Emily of the night they met two weeks prior. They started walking toward the car again.

My quiet, ordered life has changed a lot in those couple weeks... Entropy at work...