That could work and would probably be fine here, but saying female in this case is ok because context.

It was descriptive of his friend, not a label or whatever it is that makes it bad.

I’ll probably get brutally assassinated for saying this, but typing “female friend” in this case is simpler than explaining that “girl friend” is not his girl friend.

I know there are people that have made it a mission in life to be shit heels and have made the word female into something nasty but I still say we shouldn’t let them.

Thanks for listening to my Ted talk and try not to hate me for having an opinion.