A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that has read & reviewed this so far! This is coming to me a tad quicker than I anticipated so I might have the last chapter out today but if not then definitely tomorrow! Here's Chapter 2, enjoy!

Life without his wife is easier than Puck thought it would be. Granted he had only been married 14 months, and he had been single for four years before that. He doesn't like being single again but he doesn't hate it either. Mostly he's just glad he found out what a cheating bitch Maggie was before they got any further into their marriage. He feels like a fool for trusting her, especially when he looks back on things that were suspicious from the get go. Working late his fucking ass. He should have known but he's not going to beat himself up about it now.

Maggie comes for her shit a week later. Puck calls Santana and asks her to come over because he knows how much Maggie hates her. Apparently so does Santana because she shows up in the shortest skirt he's ever seen (and he's dated Rachel Berry) and sits on his kitchen counter with a beer in her hand. Maggie shoots daggers at her as she packs up her stuff and Santana makes sure to speak as loud as possible so she can hear every word.

"Hey you know what's awesome? You can totally fuck someone on this counter now. Or on the kitchen table...that's staying right?" He hears Maggie huff from the other room and he rolls his eyes. Santana just sits there with a shit eating grin on her face and takes another swig of her beer. It doesn't matter if she plays for the other team now, he knows what she's doing and it's working. "I'm just saying, you got this bitchin' place all to yourself now. If it was me, I'd be fucking everywhere!"

"That's because you're kind of a slut, San." She glares at him but then busts out into loud laughter.

"Oh Puck, you know me so well!" Maggie comes into the kitchen then, a bag of pillows under her arm. Santana rolls her eyes and leans back against the cabinet.

"I'm gonna take these, I bought them so I don't see why I should leave them here." Puck shrugs because seriously who the fuck cares about a few pillows. He'd rather not have any of the bedding his wife fucked another man on. He's about to tell her this when Santana beats him to the punch.

"Are those the pillows you were lying on when that ugly fucker was railing you? I'm sure Puck doesn't really want them anyway." Puck knows that Santana has no idea what this other guy looked like but he loves her for saying that shit.

To say Maggie is stunned to silence would be an understatement. She gathers the rest of her stuff and gets out as quickly as possible and Puck is glad for it. Santana just laughs and shakes her head.

"Seriously dude, you're better off. I fucking knew something was off about her from the beginning. I even told Rachel..." Puck shoots a look at her, as if daring her to continue the sentence. She must realize it's still a sore subject because she doesn't. Instead she finishes her beer and jumps down from the counter. "Get your ass dressed, we're going out tonight!" Puck starts to protest but the look on her face makes him roll his eyes and nod. Saying no to Santana hasn't always been his strong point, and he figures one night of drinking might do him some good.

He wakes up with the worst hangover of his life, but at least there isn't a random next to him in bed, so he calls the night a win. His apartment has way to many windows right now so he grabs his pair of aviators from his nightstand and slips them on before he gets up. He's glad he stocked his fridge with Gatorade a few days ago and he drinks a whole one after downing a couple of aspirin. He has to work in two hours and all he needs is a wicked headache when he's listening to some sixteen year old pop star shrieking in his ear.

When he pulls out his laptop and checks his email his first thought is which of his friends has a bigger fucking mouth? There's an email from Rachel, with no subject line, and he's almost afraid to open it. Then he tells himself to stop being a pussy and clicks the Read button.

Noah ~

I heard about what happened. I really am so very sorry to hear about it. I won't tell you which of our friends told me about it, I know you and I'm sure you're upset that I know about it at all. I don't need to get someone else in any trouble. I just wanted to tell you that if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm always here. I know the last time we spoke things were...strained...but I'm here. I hope you know that.

~Rachel

He stares at the email for too long. She included her phone number, which is stupid because it's been the same for the past eight years. He reads it at least twenty times, and he can't see anything hidden in the words. No ulterior motives, even though Rachel isn't like that. He thinks maybe Maggie's infidility is making him question everything he thought he knew about women.

After he's showered and left his house, he slows his walk to the subway to enjoy the weather. It's finally warming up and he loves being here in New York. He thinks about when he followed Rachel here almost 10 years ago. They had just graduated and she had just broken up with Finn for the thousandth time and had promised him she wasn't going back there again. He didn't believe her at first, but he was so ass over feet in love with her that he followed her there anyways.

He didn't try anything with her for almost six months and that was probably the longest six months of his life. One night they were walking through Central Park and she had looked so damn beautiful he just had to kiss her. So he did. She wasn't even surprised, she just smiled up at him and whispered "It took you long enough." before pulling him back down for another kiss.

They were together every day after that, only not in the same capacity as the first six months of their time in New York. The first time they had sex, Puck was sure it was something he was going to get addicted to. They worked together, in all the ways that he thought a couple should. She was all big dreams and bigger plans and Puck was there for her every step of the way. She went to school and he worked random jobs to pay the bills after they moved in together in her Junior year. They had been together almost two years and Puck was sure that he was going to marry this girl. He had everything he ever wanted.

Things started going downhill when Rachel graduated. She was constantly unhappy because her auditions weren't going the way she wanted. Puck was working part time as a guitarist for a local band and waiting tables at an Italian resturant to cushion their income. They fought about money more than anything else. They still got along and the sex was fantastic but money was a big issue. New York was expensive, and with Rachel not working the burden was placed largely on Puck's shoulders. Whenever he told her this they had the same fight. She didn't want to get a job because she needed to be available for auditions and callbacks. Puck would tell her that was bullshit, that she could work nights or weekends just so they weren't broke all the time.

When she still hadn't gotten a role six months later is when everything Puck had started to fall apart. He knew Rachel was going to resent him if they kept living like this, and he got it into his head that he was the one holding her back. He told her this and she got pissed at him, told him nothing was his fault and she just needed him to believe in her. He told her that's all he had done since they had gotten there, that he had worked his ass off to make sure she could achieve her dreams.

He brought up taking a break from their relationship, to see if what they had was really what was best for them both. She didn't like it at first, but when Puck told her that she needed to work on herself, she asked him to wait for her and he agreed. The rest as they say is history.

Puck pulls his guitar out of it's case when he gets home from his session and sits down on his couch with his notebook. He had joked with Finn that between his issues with Rachel and his wife cheating on him he cold probably write one helluva country record. He jots down a few ideas that had been in his head all day and gets to putting music to them. His mind goes back to Rachel's email from that morning and he sighs as he sets down the guitar and picks up his laptop.

Rachel ~

Thanks. It fucking sucks but at least I know now instead of 10 years down the line. You don't gotta tell me who told you, I know Finn's gotta big fucking mouth but it's cool. He's just looking out for me, so I can't be mad. Hope things are good. Later.

~ N.

He hovers over the send button and rolls his eyes as he presses it. Nothing's going to come out of this and he knows it but at least he's not the asshole that didn't write her back. She is just trying to be nice and there's no law against that. He sends another email to Finn, telling him he's a douchebag and he gets an immediate response that makes him laugh. Finn apologizes and tells him that Rachel was asking about him and he didn't want to lie.

That causes Puck to wonder all night why Rachel was asking about him in the first place.

Puck settles into single life again pretty quickly. He still hangs out with his buddies from work, and he goes out with Santana and her new girlfriend a few times. He gets a gig working for a pretty well known artist and he's fucking stoked because the guy asks him to see his original music. Puck shows him two songs that he's finished and the dude loves them. He asks Puck if he can record them and offers him a lot of money and Puck doesn't hesitate. He never thought of himself as a songwriter for someone else, but he's not going to argue if that's what ends up happening.

It sucks he had to break up with the love of his life and then get cheated on by his wife to discover that talent.

Three months after Maggie left he meets a girl at work and tells her that there is no way he's looking for a relationship right now. She tells him straight out she just thinks he's hot and wants to fuck him and he can't really argue with that logic. He takes her back to his place because it's closer and it's clean and he fucks her because he can't see any reason not to. Except when she leaves he feels weird and it pisses him off that he can't just screw a girl and not feel anything anymore. He still doesn't really care about the girl but he feels like an asshole for doing it anyways. He's too old for that shit and once you've been married the fuck 'em and chuck 'em attitude just doesn't feel good anymore.

He gets another email from Rachel and this time he doesn't hesitate to open it. She asks him if he wants to meet her for coffee because she is going to be in Brooklyn for some talk show. He doesn't answer her right away. Instead he calls Santana for advice.

"Should you go? Is that what you're seriously asking me right now?" Puck rolls his eyes even though she can't see him.

"Fuck San, yes! Should I go or not? I mean...fuck...it's Rachel! I haven't seen her since she pulled that shit on me last year. I don't even know what I'd say to her." Santana scoffed.

"How about that 'Hey, good to see you! Let's talk about my bitch of an ex wife and how much of a cuntbag she is!' That will probably be a fun topic."

"Real mature, Santana." She laughed and Puck rolled his eyes again.

"I'm serious, Puck. You should go to coffee with her. It's just coffee...it's not a date." Puck considers this as he gets off the phone with her. He types out a quick response to Rachel's email asking where she wants to meet and when. She responds right away, telling him there is a little coffee shop down the street from his place and she'll meet him there in two days. He knows the place, it used to be a favorite of Maggie's but Puck doesn't bring it up. He just tells her he'll see her there and wonders what in the hell he just got himself into.