Your Bed or Mine? by Candy Halliday Page B

him.
    “But,” he said, after he was sure the coast was clear, “if I were you, Rick, I’d beat Zada at her own game. If you clean up
     the mess, she’ll only make another one. I say, leave the mess. Show her you’re not playing into her hands.”
    Rick said, “Good point.”
    “Or,” Joe said, grinning, “fight fire with fire and do a little trashing of your own. Zada isn’t the only one capable of making
     a mess. She wants messy, I say give the lady what the lady wants.”
    Rick cringed at the thought.
    Charlie burst out laughing.
    “What?” Rick demanded.
    “Sorry,” Charlie said. “I was just trying to imagine you neatly organizing the mess you were trying to make.”
    “I’m not that anal,” Rick grumbled.
    “Yes you are,” Charlie and Joe said at the same time.
    “Okay, dammit, maybe I am,” Rick admitted, “but I didn’t move home to lose this bet to Zada. I came home to win.”
    “Damn right,” said Joe.
    “That’s the spirit, soldier,” Charlie said.
    “
After
we play eighteen holes,” Joe threw in. “We have a tee-time in an hour. Zada told us where you were. That’s when we came to
     find you.”
    “You saw Zada?”
    “Briefly,” Charlie said. “She was coming back across the street from Alicia’s house.”
    Rick laughed.
    “What’s so funny?” Joe asked.
    Tongue in cheek, Rick said, “Alicia dropped by to welcome me back home this morning, and to offer me—Well, let’s just say
     she made it a point to let me know she was available for anything I needed. Day or night. Zada slammed the door in her face.
     I hope she went over to apologize.”
    Joe let out a low whistle. “Wow. I don’t even want to think about what Tish would have done. But apologizing isn’t one of
     them.”
    “Even Jen wouldn’t have taken a welcome home visit from Alicia in stride,” Charlie admitted.
    “Women,” Rick said, shaking his head. “One hundred percent comprehendable-proof.”
    “Which is why we should stick to playing golf instead of trying to figure them out,” Joe said.
    “I bet Simon agrees with that statement,” Charlie said, bending down to ruffle the dog’s fur. “Don’t you, boy?”
    Simon’s bark was affirmative.
    “Good boy,” Rick said. “Let’s go home and get my golf clubs.”
    As they started back toward the house, Charlie said, “Tell us the truth, Rick. What is your real strategy for coming up with
     the
Survivor
game? Do you really want Zada to move out? Or is the game just a tactic to convince Zada she should call off the divorce
     and let you move back in permanently?”
    Good question.
    But Rick said, “Zada’s too stubborn to call off the divorce.”
    “Be fair,” Charlie said. “Zada isn’t the only stubborn one.”
    “True,” Rick admitted. “We’re both too stubborn for our own good. Which is exactly why we can’t live together.”
    Joe spoke up. “You and Zada could live together if you joined leagues with the rest of us husbands and used the magic phrase
     all us married men rely on to keep the little woman happy.”
    Rick laughed. “What magic phrase?”
    “‘Whatever you say, dear,’” Joe told him.
    Rick shook his head. “Sorry. I’m not a whatever-you-say-dear kind of guy.”
    “Like your dad, you mean?” Charlie asked.
    Rick said, “What does my dad have to do with this?”
    “Just an observation,” Charlie said. “You told me once your dad always gave the orders and you and your mom always followed
     them to the letter. I hate to burst your bubble, Rick, but your mom came from a different generation. Today’s woman is better
     at giving orders than she is at taking them.”
    “And that’s when you appease her with the magic phrase,” Joe said. “Then you go about your business and basically do whatever
     you want.”
    Rick sent them both a puzzled look.
    “But that seems so… so dishonest,” he said.
    “I’m not saying honesty doesn’t play a major role in marriage,” Joe said. “It does. Just