So Forward

By Mina V. Esguerra

Colin Valerio has been performing practically all his life. From national team figure skating, to underwear modeling, and now posting (shirtless) selfies daily for his adoring audience. Many don’t know though that at 29, he’s quietly earning his MBA degree—that is, if he can fix his final paper. It’s got too much heart, not enough business.

National hockey team medalist, outstanding young professional, MBA prof on leave...Lexa Lorenzo is determined and driven, and did all that by age 32. She should be her family corp’s next CEO. But she’s all business, not enough heart, and her mentor/boss/aunt wants her to be more accessible, approachable, “charming.”

As luck would have it, Lexa’s alma mater calls her in to help a graduating MBA student—and it’s Colin Valerio, fellow winter sports athlete, walking/talking ball of charm. She has the sports and business background he needs. He is a natural at all the things she’s told to improve on, and may be able to teach her a thing or two. Let the lessons begin.

[Part of the Six 32 Central series, but can be read as a standalone.]

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mina V. Esguerra
• Release date: Jul 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005583842

Mina V. Esguerra

Mina V. Esguerra writes and publishes romance novels. Her young adult/fantasy trilogy Interim Goddess of Love is a college love story featuring gods from Philippine mythology. Her contemporary romance novellas won the Filipino Readers’ Choice awards for Chick Lit in 2012 (Fairy Tale Fail) and 2013 (That Kind of Guy). In 2013, she founded #RomanceClass, a community of Filipino authors of romance in English, and it has since helped over 80 authors write and publish over 100 books. She is also a media adaptation agent, working with LA-based Bold MP to develop romance media by Filipino creatives for an international audience. Visit minavesguerra.com for more information about her books and projects.

Book preview

1

From: Lorenzo, Alexandra/Gmail

To: Valerio, Colin/MBA/AGS

Cc: Lua, Charles/Faculty/AGS

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Subject: Strat Paper Consultation

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Mr. Valerio,

This will seem really sudden, but your adviser (my friend) Charles insisted that you will be needing a consultation with me at our soonest mutually convenient time.

I have not been teaching since I went on leave a few terms ago, but I still live near the AGS campus and can drop by if this absolutely absolutely (his words) requires my attention. Please email me a copy of your paper and be ready to discuss it with me on Monday at the library lounge at 4:30 pm.

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From: Valerio, Colin/MBA/AGS

To: Lorenzo, Alexandra/Gmail

Cc: Lua, Charles/Faculty/AGS

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Subject: Re: Strat Paper Consultation

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Ms. Lorenzo,

Thank you for agreeing to review my paper and for offering a chance to consult you. It means a lot. I’ve attached the draft so far, with Prof. Lua’s comments.

I understand why you’ve been asked to comment on this and you don’t need my permission to go on full attack if you want to. If you feel it’s needed.

Sugod.

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Colin

Lexa Lorenzo, formerly of the Philippine national women’s hockey team, knew she shouldn’t be checking her email after midnight and when she was already in bed. Still, the notification that popped up revealed that Colin Valerio, formerly of the Philippine national figure skating team, had replied. She couldn’t help but look at it. Suddenly she was reading this.

The winter sports teams trained at the same rink and for many of them, it had replaced high school. Which meant, of course she knew of handsome, popular, scary-talented skater Colin, because everyone knew him and he was a rink darling. Lexa was in hockey around the same time but also in actual high school, then actual college. She’d had to skip a lot (all) of the parties. Technically they’d never been introduced, and because the rink was a smallish world, it became awkward to ask for an intro years later.

She knew him from his Instagram, did that count? He liked to post photos of himself shirtless, and her friends in the group chat liked that. I’m an admirer of your work. That selfie at the park, after your run, chest glistening with sweat? That was the best thing I saw all year.

No, that wasn’t very appropriate, was it?

Anyway this was now, and about his MBA Strat paper, of all things. The proper thing to do was to email him like she was a professional, and address him like he was one too. Surely he’d be fully clothed at their meeting; nothing to worry about.

Lexa Lorenzo, faculty on-leave at the Anselmo Graduate School, current senior manager of shared services communications at Basco Lorenzo Group, was hanging out on a Monday afternoon at the AGS campus because she could work off-site if she wanted to. And she enjoyed hanging out at the campus where she got her MBA and taught for a few years. It was an enclave of brick and marble inside the city where she lived and worked. When she was still teaching, she took calls on campus, or scheduled meetings near it when possible. By the time she joined Basco Lorenzo full-time, they had redone the corporate offices to knock down most of the walls and that threw off the very Pinoy corporate culture in ways that they hadn’t yet figured out. Some floors were extremely quiet and someone’s cough could be heard clear across the room. Other floors were loud as a restaurant during Sunday lunch. It was still a management debate whether the floor plan was working or not, but Lexa already knew the level of noise and energy she liked best.

Overheard in the lounge: Yeah and you should have told us this in the group chat last night when we asked you, lazy fuck!

Ah the calling of names. She missed this chaotic energy.

The library lounge was always interesting. Right now it was Strat paper season for the graduating students, and some other group project due for everyone else. It was never eerily quiet this time of year, too many people busy with too many things. The arguments were never constant either; just bursts of stress and emotion, and then it would simmer or explode and people usually took it outside. Was it weird that she was okay with it? She didn’t want people arguing in her workplace every damn day, and she wasn’t a noisy office person either. But there was a feeling to being in school like this that she missed, and was never really going to get back.

It was nice to be around people who were still doing the things she couldn’t.

She might have been eavesdropping on more group arguments, because why else was her mind preoccupied when Colin Valerio himself walked up to her table, right on time, and asked to take the chair across from her.

Ye—sure, she said, and it didn’t sound like a real word and...well, that happened. She should have more poise than this. So what if she was meeting one of her top five Instagram crushes?

And technically they were peers; national athletes at the same time.

She should have more poise than this.

Alexandra Lorenzo, Colin said, offering his hand for her to shake. Their hands met near the middle of the table. A pleasure to meet you.

It was a firm, warm, smooth shake. He led it, pumped her hand once, then a second time, and then gently released. She was looking at their joined hands the whole time, and yet—and yet when he released her, she...stalled? Experienced a hiccup of consciousness? Her hand remained as is and as he retreated, the tips of her fingers trailed over the skin of his palm.

She blinked, and then looked up to see him smiling at her.

Well shit. Of course he caught that.

Lexa cleared her throat and pulled up her best impression of a more competent Alexandra Lorenzo, on the shortest of notices. Colin Valerio.

Call me Colin.

All right. And what was she going to say, call her Lexa? Just don’t call me ‘ma’am.’

I was about to, he said. My friends who were your students said that would probably be best.

"What? You’re joking, right? Who are these people? What did they say?"

I should treat you with respect or you will crush me.

Well, that was just great. And consistent. Lexa never seemed to be the sweet one, the cute one, the nice one. From when she was a kid, her key descriptions seemed to be suplada, difficult, and variations of. Lately with privilege and position it became a form of respect, but she could tell it was tinged with fear. If only it didn’t have to be that old game of Bitch or Not A Bitch all of the freaking time.

Maybe if she had met Colin when they were at the rink, before business school and corporate—

But no, that wouldn’t have mattered. People talked about her the same way, and would have warned him regardless. He also didn’t exactly intend to meet her now; it was a consultation, and she happened to be the closest one who qualified.

Whatever. She was never going to be the cute one.

Did they mention what I would crush you with?

He smiled; obviously he was mature and confident enough to not actually think she would go terror prof on him. Or he was good at confrontation, and probably was. They didn’t have to. You have years of experience with body checks—I just assumed.

Sometimes even those who respect me deserve crushing. Just a little.

Ms. Lorenzo, Colin said, I respect and fear and admire you already.

2

Colin Valerio felt exposed.

No one would believe it. He wasn’t in front of cameras and an audience. He wasn’t about to attempt a quad. He wasn’t shirtless for the viewing pleasure of a few hundred thousand people.

But this was much worse.

The Strat paper was the final project, the culmination of everything he’d learned in business school. It was meant to be a hundred or so pages of a deep dive into a business problem to solve, the result of months of research and the guidance of faculty mentors. He was so close to getting his degree, but not quite; apparently a former faculty instructor he had never met should look at his paper first. Why should she? What could this possibly do to help him?

So he looked her up. Alexandra Lorenzo's profile was still up on the AGS website. Alexandra Santillan Lorenzo, MBA, bachelor’s degree double majoring in management and development studies. Outstanding young person of the year awardee for creating a financing mechanism for sustainable small businesses run by women—apparently a result of one of her school projects. So far, so far away from his life that he didn’t even know why she would be familiar.

Then he saw her photo, and damn, he finally placed her. Lexa Lorenzo, women’s hockey bronze medalist, played for the national team. He remembered her from just being at the rink, but they weren’t exactly friends. Small world; everyone assumed everyone already knew each other.

Or she didn’t want to meet you, and that’s why you never did.

According to some of the skater parents, Colin had a reputation. That stuck with him a lot longer than any other critique, and in his career he’d had a lot of snark thrown his way. A reputation, like it was a bad thing. He had been eighteen then and had forgotten who said it, and what it had been about—‘cause there was a list, sir. Did you mean the dancing? The costumes? Kissing girls and boys? The infamous midnight naked skating stunt? Only the last one was entirely untrue but it was associated with him anyway. Everyone’s a judge. And he couldn’t please everyone.

Still, he happened to find a pocket of space in a noisy, judgey city that let him be exactly who he wanted and needed to be. Experiencing that kindness was life-changing, and career-defining. He wondered if it had been the same for her.

Her photo was smirking at him. Her hair was a little wild and wavy, and one brow was slightly raised. She did still look like the badass forward. The double-major achiever. The prof who shouldn’t be crossed.

She was a big fucking deal.

And she was going to murder his little paper, he knew it.

Colin. Lexa Lorenzo’s voice was unexpectedly soothing, given that she was in a position to break him (academically) and was probably about to. Soothing but knowing. "Really now."

She was on to him, exactly as he had expected. Not that he was planning to coast through this. Level of difficulty, extreme, all the way. Still, Prof. Lua was a bastard for sending him her way, increasing his chances of failure a hundredfold.

Ms. Lorenzo, Colin said, and enjoyed saying it like that. I tried to explain all of it in the paper.

Oh, I read your paper. She had a tablet tilted up and facing her, but at this she set it down, turned it in his direction. He could see what was on the screen—a page from his paper, and what looked like a zillion annotations displayed as yellow notes. You’re telling me Prof. Lua let you write this? We're not doing philanthropy here, Colin.

Colin suspected he was close to failing, and maybe he was right all along. His paper was a cause, and not exactly a sure thing of a business strategy. He wanted Philippine-based fashion retailer Cirrus Active to financially support Team Pilipinas hockey, figure skating, and speed skating.

Anyone who got close enough to his paper’s abstract, if they didn’t laugh, told him Hell No. Prof. Lua likely let this through so Alexandra Lorenzo—with her two degrees, her corporate experience, and years as national team ice hockey player—would be the one to get him to shut it down.

First of all, Colin said. Thank you for reading it. I don’t expect anyone to be doing anything for me, and what you’ve agreed to do is a big deal. You read it, you’re actually here, on campus—I’m sure you’re busy and it’s an actual work day.

Well, Charles is my friend and he insisted. But I put you in my calendar as a meeting, my boss will be fine with it.

See, you’re into philanthropy too, I guess.

Colin, all your jokes without answering my question. Why did you write this? Why did your prof let you?

I told him I wasn’t interested in writing any other Strat paper, and if that meant I was going to drop the program one term short of a degree, so be it.

He could have just failed you.

Harsh. Colin was glad he showed up expecting to be grilled. Those hockey players, they were oddly competitive even