Free Your Bed or Mine? by Candy Halliday

lonely for female company by now.
    Lonely.
    Available.
    And living right across the street!
    With Zada out of the way now, she might have a chance.
    That would make Jen and Tish regret letting Zada push her out of the loop. After all, Jen and Tish had been her friends first.
     Well, semi-friends, if you wanted to be technical about it.
    Before her nasty divorce from Edward. And before her big settlement made the headlines.
    That’s when wives started getting nervous around her. And when Jen and Tish had dropped her in favor of just-moved-into-Woodberry-Park
     Zada.
    Alicia frowned.
    Zada and her infamous “Housewives’ Fantasy Club.”
    Ex
-housewives excluded, of course.
    Their club was the talk of the neighborhood.
    “Wouldn’t you love to listen in?” everyone said.
    “Wouldn’t you kill to be invited to one of their Fantasy Club meetings?” everyone agreed.
    Well, that situation was about to change.
    Zada was the
ex
-housewife now.
    And I’ll be more than happy to fill her empty slot.
    Besides, once she and Rick were an item, she’d no longer be the out-of-the-loop divorcée, watching life in the suburbs pass
     her by from her upstairs bedroom window, the way she’d been doing yesterday.
    She’d watched Zada zoom into her driveway; watched Jen and Tish rush over to console her. After they’d declined another invitation
     from her. This time to a bunko party—the new millennium replacement for bridge. Sorry, but
    they were taking Zada out to dinner, Jen and Tish had informed her, to console poor Zada after her big day in divorce court.
    Snobs!
    All of them.
    Where were Tish and Jen when she had her day in court?
    They certainly hadn’t offered to console her. Much less take her out to dinner!
    Alicia shook her head. She wasn’t even sure why she bothered.
    Since her divorce, she’d completely exhausted herself trying to think of ways to keep Jen and Tish from avoiding her. She’d
     tried to start a book club, with no success. She’d also hosted every type of makeup, home interior, cooking utensil, and jewelry
     party available.
    Have it and they will come.
    That’s what she’d kept telling herself.
    Alicia sighed.
    I’ve had it, all right!
    She’d had it with playing nice to get their attention.
    I’ll give them a reason to notice me.
    And I’m standing at his front door right now!
    She’d come up with her new Seduce-Rick-Clark plan late yesterday evening when she’d noticed all of the frantic activity going
     on at the Clark house. All of the running back and forth to the garage, gathering up box after box of Zada’s belongings.
    That’s when she’d realized what was really going on.
    That Rick had won the house in the divorce.
    That Rick, not Zada, was going to be her neighbor!
    She’d been so excited, she’d hardly closed her eyes all night. This morning, Zada’s Lexus was missing from its usual place
     in the driveway, and Rick’s Hummer had taken its place. This was the reason she was standing at Rick’s front door now.
    The proverbial early bird, worming my way into the Housewives’ Fantasy Club.
    The front door opened.
    Alicia snapped to attention.
    Rick seemed surprised to see her, but he smiled.
    “Hi, Alicia,” he said. “Is there something I can do for you?”
    Alicia smiled back.
    Her best femme fatale smile, to be exact.
    “Actually, Rick,” she said, “I came over to see if there was anything
I
could do for
you.
”
    Zada’s dark brown eyes narrowed.
    Alicia’s breathy voice always made her gag.
    Simon growled in agreement.
    She’d clipped the leash to Simon’s collar and headed out of the kitchen after Rick left to answer the door. But she’d come
     to a screeching halt in the foyer when she heard Alicia’s voice.
    What the hell is she doing here?
    Friends, they weren’t.
    Alicia had always blamed her for breaking up the friendship Alicia had with Jen and Tish before she moved to Woodberry Park,
     which was absolutely ridiculous. She’d had nothing to do