novelUnhappy Beginning of Year 1
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Emily naturally didn't agree with Jake's point of view, but as she'd said before she knew something like this could happen and so didn't want to talk from the start, even if she didn't agree with Jake, Emily trusted Jake's vision a lot and hoped for the company to make more profits from these riskier investments.
Jake respected Emily very much and knew he was lucky to have her working for him, unfortunately maybe he couldn't use all of Emily's investment talents, yet he wanted her to know that she helped him a lot.
"Emily, I know you want only the best for the company and are concerned about investments, but I want you to know that I have complete confidence in my vision for investments."
"I think I always review and choose the best investment option and it's impossible for you or anyone else to change my mind about it, maybe if one day I could make a mistake I won't take your opinion of it anymore."
"Still you help me a lot and it's critical to the company, I trust you and all administrative and employee management decisions of the company are yours, you are also my personal representative and lawyer."
"So the best way to help me is to keep doing what you have been doing, especially since over the next few years I will be very busy with basketball and marathons."
Jake knew he might sound arrogant saying something like that, but since he couldn't tell anyone he knew what would happen in the future, he better say he didn't want to hear other people's opinions because he was overconfident.
So even if he seemed arrogant no one could criticize his decisions unless he made a mistake, after all, he really would need Emily's help in the coming years to handle his business.
This time she might not have been very upset that Jake hadn't listened to her advice, but in the future, she might be dissatisfied thinking he didn't trust her, so it was better that he looks arrogant now and make Emily give up advice.
After that Emily left her house to make the investments Jake requested, she didn't seem bothered that Jake heard him, but it seemed she found it unpleasant that Jake was arrogant like that.
Jake was very fond of Emily as it would work and even with a friend, but he always tried to keep a distance and treated her as his assistant and business partner, he learned from his experience in his past life that keeping some distance with employees was important.
The fact that Jake always tried to be humble even with everything he achieved could make others think he was very easy going, so for Jake a bit of arrogance was necessary to look natural.
After talking to Emily, Jake had finished all the business he had to settle in Miami, so for the next few days he spent plenty of time at the restaurant to talk and spend more time with Eva.
After another week Jake said goodbye to his mother again and went to college, he wanted to spend more time at home, but coach Smith asked the players to return before the end of the year.
Jake naturally refused and only came back on January 2 when two days left for the first game of the year, Jake knew he might end up angering the coach, but he was willing to face the coach's anger to spend both holidays at home.
When Jake returned he went first to the dorm and talked to his friends who were all still in college, just as Jake though none of them ended up deciding to come home for a few days as Jake did.
Only Zack went home before Christmas because he had no excuse not to spend the holidays at home when he lived so close to the university, yet he managed to take William and Aaron home with him.
"Jake, you had to see what Zack's brother was like, he's called Brett Roberts, he's taller, a year older and prettier than Zack and even nicer, now we understand why Zack never introduces his brother to ourselves for him to study at the same university."
"It's not true, he's no cuter than me and I'm not jealous of him, I don't call him because he always likes to tease me."
Jake had heard about Zack's brother himself, Zack said he didn't have a good relationship with his brother who always told his parents about the confusions and problems that Zack caused his parents.
From what Jake understood this Brett was the typical older brother and even though he was only a year older he was forced to mature early to take care of Zack who was the younger brother, but it seemed that Brett had a lot of affection for Zack and was much more responsible after taking care of Zack for so many years.
But if Zack didn't want to introduce his brother to him, Jake would never force it and didn't want to ruin the good friendship he had with Zack because of it, after all, Jake was very unsure about his friendships, William and Aaron were different and didn't care about what Zack thought before they tried to be friends with Brett.
After arranging all things Jake went to the court to train with the basketball team, he happily greeted his teammates and talked with Carter, Jamison, and Charlie, they were closer and talking while doing the warm-up exercises.
Even though Charlie didn't have so much playing time he always came on the court at every game and was respected as a senior student, not to mention that Charlie was more skilled than normal players at other universities, he was a reserve in this star-studded team.
Then he had normal training as he had before the start of the season to regain the shape of the players who had a little break at the end of the year, naturally, even though he arrived 4 days later Jake was the best fit.
Even though throughout the training Jake realized that coach Smith seemed to be looking at him a lot, Jake figured it was because he had disobeyed the coach's orders and arrived a few days later.
Jake naturally hoped something like this would happen and didn't care much, he knew he was wrong in this situation and thought the coach was unreasonable in asking players to come back before the end of the year.
Many, like their roommates, preferred not to travel home and had no problem retraining before the end of the year, but Jake had gone to Miami and wouldn't be back after just a few days at home.
After training coach Guthridge, who always liked Jake very much, called him in to talk, Jake knew it should be something important, so he didn't even warn his roommates that it might take time and went to coach Guthridge's office.
"Did you call me coach?"
"Yes, Jake, you can sit there."
"I called you here to ask why you didn't come back for training 3 days ago like the other players?"
"I'll be honest, coach, I just wanted to stay home longer with my mom, I went to Miami the day after our last game, and after just over a week the coach has asked me to come back."
"I understand there are players who couldn't even go home because they lived farther away and training was important, but I didn't want to go back to university after such a short time, after all, I don't have classes."
Coach Guthridge only sighed after hearing what Jake had to say, he understood what Jake meant and even hoped that he didn't have any reason not to come when he was called by Coach Smith.
But he also knew that Coach Smith had not done so badly and had to prepare the team for the first game of 1997, so it was only natural that he had to call the players a few days earlier.
So you had to look at the players' commitment and their need, if you were a player who didn't care much about college basketball you would arrive later just as Jake had.
But if it was someone who loved basketball and college or needed it to join a team in the NBA surely would have come a few days earlier, Jake was halfway between the two.
"I understand, Jake, you made your choice, now you should know that probably in the next games you might not even play them if you are going to stay in reserve and come in for just a few minutes."
"I understand and accept Coach Smith's decision, but I have to say that if I don't play at least 30 minutes like I was doing in these last games, I think we could seriously lose those next 3 games, and put myself in less than 20 minutes will change the outcome of the game."
"You can leave now, Jake."
Coach Guthridge was annoyed and nearly kicked Jake out of his office after hearing what he said, the coach knew that Jake was a great player and could change the outcome of a game and had helped the team win a lot in recent games.
But now he was talking like it was indispensable and that the team would lose the next three games without him, that was a lot of arrogance, coach Guthridge now agreed with coach Smith and thought that Jake had to stay a few games in reserve to learn some humility.
After all even a few games ago Jake was still doubtful if he would play more time in the games, he was playing starter position with Ed Cota and Shammond Williams, Jake was managing to play longer because he had more skill and was better for the team, but coach Guthridge didn't think Jake was indispensable to the team.
He was so annoyed that he ended up talking about his conversation with Coach Smith that he was also annoyed by Jake's arrogance and even laughed in anger, even if the team was in a losing streak he wouldn't hear it from a freshman, yet but now that the team came from a 9-win streak and had such a strong team this year.
He wouldn't let Jake play as a starter after hearing this and really wanted to see if the team would lose if Jake didn't play this game.
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