I don't do women friends.
It never goes well in the end.
They either want to shag you and get all twisted if you give them the brush off or you want to shag them they are not interested, or it gets worse and you find one of her friends desirable and shag the friend and then it all gets messy and ego's are bruised and someone is crying.
Some of my mates have interesting wives/partners that are fun to chat with but I couldn't imagine hanging out with them outside a group dinner or similar.
No no, too many problems can arise with friends of the opposite sex, I'll stick to blokes for mates. We are far more forgiving of our little idiosyncracies, like a miniatures hobby for instance, and we don't judge or scrutinise each others apparel or physionomy anywhere near as much.
Keep it simple, keep it safe.