Upside Down by Fern Michaels

can catch up to the guys. It’s my turn to buy anyway.”
    That threw Maggie for a loop. Her turn to buy. That had to mean Emily had been going to lunch with the guys on a regular basis. Well, crap!
    â€œGo!” she barked again. Emily didn’t need to be told twice. Maggie could see her texting as she waited for the elevator. Well, crap again.
    Maggie’s head started to ache. She’d just dug herself into a hole, and, right now, right this minute, she didn’t know how to get out of it. Think!
    â€œI’m thinking! I’m thinking!” she muttered over and over to herself.
    She’d broken her own cardinal rule, and it was eating at her. She’d spied on her best friends. Friends as in plural but Ted in particular. Once they’d been lovers, engaged to be married, but that time was long gone. She’d married someone else and was now a widow. Her whole life had been turned upside down, especially during the last year, after her husband had left her to go back to war and been killed.
    God, why was she thinking like this? Because she’d broken the cardinal rule and had to live with it. It wouldn’t be so bad, she thought, but Ted knew what she’d done. Espinosa and Dennis knew, too. Probably the rest of those in her immediate circle knew, too. Ted’s circle as well. She’d be a pariah. The guys would hate her, and the girls . . . God, what would the girls think? Especially Myra and Annie. Tears burned her eyes at the thought she’d be alone in the world, friendless, and all because she had to spy on her best friends.
    If only she hadn’t sent that stupid banana tree. If only. And what did she even hope to gain or to learn? That a building in Georgetown called the BOLO Building was a meeting place for the guys. So what? For all she knew, the guys were gambling away their free hours in the privacy of the building. She’d staked out the Bagel Emporium and eaten at least a thousand bagels as she watched the building. A total bust. Because . . . no one, as in ever, entered the building by the front door. The back entrance was used for some reason, and there was no way she could stake out the back without being spotted. The owner of the bagel shop, Ding something or other, said he didn’t know anything about the building, just that it had new tenants.
    Well, she knew a thing or two about pricey real estate, and the BOLO Building was as pricey as it gets. Why did the boys need such a building to gamble if indeed that’s what they were doing? And there was no record that she could find for the ownership of that particular building. She’d need someone like Abner Tookus to find that out, but that was definitely out of the question.
    She’d called around to the girls and tried to ask sneaky questions, but she’d come up dry. Then the brilliant idea of sending the banana tree came to her. She’d sat at a small table at the bagel place and watched as it was being delivered. Then she’d almost exploded off her seat when she saw Ding deliver a bag of bagels. To the front door!
    Something was going on. Something no one wanted her or the girls to know about.
    â€œWhat?” she thundered to her empty office.

Chapter 7
    Maggie leaned back and squeezed her eyes shut. Just because she was the editor in chief didn’t mean that her reporter instincts were dead. Once a reporter, always a reporter. Tack the word investigative onto that thought, and for sure she wasn’t dead in the water. All it meant to her was that she had to be a little more careful and not make any more dumb moves like sending banana trees to the opposition. The word sneaky came to mind, but she quickly rejected it. When it came to scooping the opposition, everything was fair, and Ted, Espinosa, and Dennis had suddenly become the opposition. At the moment, she couldn’t care less whether her assumption was true or false. The trio had broken the cardinal rule of