do you like on your pizza? So far, I have cheese and mushrooms. What else do you like for toppings?
Leesa counted on her fingers. “Cheese, mushrooms, onion, green peppers, and black olives, if you have all that.”
“I do, because those are my favorite toppings, too.” She added the remaining ingredients and slid the raw pizza into the oven. “Twenty minutes to wait. How about more iced tea, or would you like a Diet Pepsi?”
Leesa brightened. “Sounds good. You know how to make me feel better. Pizza and Diet Pepsi.”
Karen rinsed her hands and dried them on a paper towel. “I like that combo, too.” She filled two glasses with crushed ice from the refrigerator and retrieved two cans of Diet Pepsi from the pantry.
Leesa sat at the kitchen table and poured Diet Pepsi over the ice in her glass, watching carefully so it didn’t foam over. “You know what I like about you, Karen? You’re my true friend. You always tell me the truth, whether I want to hear it or not. You don’t know how few people are like that.”
Karen placed two plates and napkins on the table. “Don’t put me on a pedestal.”
Chapter Seven
Chuck O’Malley parked his Cadillac Escalade in underground parking at the Lane building. This time, I’m going to talk with the real Lyza Lane and not her sister pretending to be Lyza. I still need to thank her and tell her how she helped turn my life around.
Once in the main lobby of the Lane building, he made his way to the guards’ station. One of the men checked badges as people entered the secure area of the building. The other man scrutinized the computer screen in front of him.
Chuck approached the man behind the computer screen. “Excuse me, could you tell me what floor Lyza Lane’s office is?”
“Those offices are on the seventh floor. Take the elevators on your right. Sign in here.” Chuck showed his ID, signed in, and accepted the visitor’s badge. He hurried to make the elevator.
People squeezed together to make room for Chuck, and no one got off until the fourth floor. Three people got off, and those remaining spread out a bit. Everyone else exited. Chuck scrutinized the people getting off as they split up. None of them looked like Lyza. He went to the receptionist’s desk.
“I’m here to see Lyza Lane,” he announced.
The receptionist smiled. “Your name, sir?”
“Chuck, er… Charles O’Malley.”
The young woman looked at his badge, then down at a computer screen. “Do you have an appointment?”
Chuck glanced behind him at the leather sofas in the waiting area. “No. But I’m willing to wait.” He took a seat.
The receptionist typed on the keyboard.
Ten minutes later, Lyza entered the waiting area. She held out her hand. “Mr. O’Malley?”
Chuck stood and shook her hand. “Yes, do you have time to see me?”
She smiled. “This is a surprise. Come to my office.”
Neither one of them spoke as he followed her to her executive office. She motioned for him to sit in the informal area around the coffee table. He sat in the overstuffed chair.
She poured two glasses of water from the pitcher on the nearby bar. “You’re a long way from home, Mr. O’Malley.”
He took the glass she offered. “I think you know me well enough to call me Chuck.”
She smiled again, then sat in the chair next to him. “All right, and you can call me Lyza. Our last meeting was under very different circumstances. That was a different life.”
Chuck took a sip of water. “I believe that. The Lyza I met in the Brisbane office would not have returned my money, nor would she have seen me today.”
She smiled. “A lot has happened.”
He leaned back in the chair. “I wanted to thank you for your generosity in person. I was at the end of my rope when Clete Collins came to my door. I was at rock bottom, and that knock on the door was an answer to prayer.”
Lyza’s eyebrows shot up. “Answer to prayer?”
He nodded. “I’d fallen away from God a long time ago, and it took that whole incident to bring me back to Him. I’m ashamed of what I tried to do, drilling for oil on land that wasn’t mine, and then trying to buy it for a song after I found oil. That was despicable. I came to ask your forgiveness.”
She didn’t hesitate. “You are forgiven. Now, I need to ask you for forgiveness. I set out to hurt you back, and that was wrong of me. God showed me that.”
His voice softened. “I forgave you long ago. It was one of the twelve steps I worked in AA. When I heard you had taken the Christian faith, I wondered how real it was. I see now that it is genuine.”
She clasped her hands together. “Oh, it’s real. It’s caused a lot of hardship from time to time, but I’ve been blessed beyond what I could ever think or ask.”
He wanted to hear her story. “How did you find Him?”
Her eyes brightened. “He found me in the crash of Swiss Air Flight 688, where He saved me spiritually and physically. What a wonderful God we serve.”
Chuck felt an instant kinship with Lyza, the woman he had hated in Brisbane. Across the room from them, Chuck spotted the call light flashing on her desk phone. I should leave. She’s a busy woman.
He stood. “Well, that’s why I came; I wanted to thank you and to ask for your forgiveness. Oh, and I don’t live in Australia anymore. My life changed, and I returned to the States. I’m not asking for business, but here’s my card in case you should ever want to get in touch with me.”
She took the card and read it aloud. “Charles O’Malley, Administrator and Founder, Secure Systems, Inc. Sounds like you’ve chosen something in your field.”
“It’s served me well. We’re growing like crazy. We’ve got projects all over the world. Well, thanks again, Lyza; and thanks for seeing me.” He stepped toward the door.
She stood and walked with him. “It was good to see you. I’ll keep your card, but give me another one for Bill, our office manager. You never know. We may need you, one of these days.”
He stopped. “I’d love to work with you. Oh, and there’s something else you should know. When you were in Africa, I ran into Leesa, thinking she was you. Do you switch identities often?”
Lyza froze. “Never. We’ve always valued our individuality. I find it hard to believe she did that.”
Chuck smiled to defuse Lyza’s surprise. “She fooled me. I took her out to dinner and apologized and thanked her for what you did.”
Lyza’s eyes narrowed. “If she did that to you, I’m wondering who else she’s fooled.”
Chuck
