Dear Panel,

I am Equally Confused & Angry, a 22 year old female, and pretty torn up emotionally.

He's Confused & Angry, 27, and also hurting.

Wally is the world's biggest mishap.

Nina is the slut he slept with.

I cheated on my boyfriend of then 4 years. I was unhappy, feeling trapped, alone, empty, and tired of being accused of something I wasn't doing. So one night, it all got to be too much, and I set out to prove my boyfriend and the rest of the world right. Hoping maybe then it would all stop. I slept with Wally.

It took me a week, but I confessed it all to my boyfriend. He was hurt, and I tried my best to understand him, and tell him everything he wanted to know.

Well, that wasn't good enough. Last Friday, he was in California, and he slept with the west coast's biggest slut. He came home with hickeys all over him.

I can't even look at him now. He told me what happened, and why, but I'm having a real hard time trying to make things work between us when every time I look at him I see what she left on him. It's like he belongs with her now. I feel like I'm living with HER boyfriend, not the man I've lived with and loved for almost 5 years.

I don't know if I can get past this. I know that the way I'm treating him is unfair, because – hey, I did it – but I just don't think I can handle this. It's sad, because I love him so much. I wish there was a way for me to cope with all this, and not lose him. I just can't help but to feel that I have already lost him.

What can I do to let this go, and work things out with him?

– Equally Confused & Angry
Female, age 22, Maryland, USA