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Spring Hill couple co-stars in TLC's <i>90 Day </i><i>Fianc</i><i>&#233;</i>

 
Jason Hitch and Cassia Tavares met online two years ago through a mutual Facebook friend, and are now engaged.
Jason Hitch and Cassia Tavares met online two years ago through a mutual Facebook friend, and are now engaged.
Published Nov. 13, 2014

SPRING HILL

Jason Hitch smiled as Cassia Tavares tugged on his blue, striped shirt. She smiled as he told his side of their story.

Hitch is from the United States; Tavares is from Brazil. He is 38; she is 23. When she suggested they date, he resisted. When he dated her anyway, they wound up engaged.

Then Hitch discovered 90 Day Fiancé, a TLC television docu-series that features Americans who are engaged to partners outside the country. The non-American half of the couple uses a K-1 "fiance visa" to move to the United States, but the visa comes with a catch: Wed within 90 days or be deported.

When Hitch wrote an email to TLC to see if the couple could co-star in the show's second season, which is currently being aired, he waited until after he sent it to ask Tavares if she would be willing to participate.

Initially, she said no.

Then she changed her mind.

• • •

Hitch and Tavares met online in March 2012, through a mutual Facebook friend — Hitch's basic training bunk mate from the National Guard. Tavares, who was a college student in Curitiba, Brazil, and the bunk mate dated from a distance.

When the relationship fizzled, she began talking with Hitch.

"A couple times a week," he said. "An email, a text message. Nothing serious."

She appreciated his patience. He appreciated her interests.

By that winter, Hitch, who lived in Normal, Ill., was Tavares' boyfriend.

"I thought he was insane," said Hitch's dad, Ron Hitch, 68, who is now supportive of his son's relationship.

But his son and Tavares talked every day, via video chat, telephone calls and text messages.

Distance dating is difficult, Tavares said.

"The challenge is trust," she said. And "if you don't talk, what do you have?"

But talking is not easy, either.

"Texts can get misconstrued; a lot of people make something out of nothing," Hitch said. And "Skype takes too much time. I'm not a big fan."

"You don't like to text, you don't like to Skype," Tavares said to Hitch in the living room at the house she now shares with him and his dad in Spring Hill. "How we got here?"

The trips Hitch took to Brazil while they dated helped. The first time they met in person was near the baggage claim at an airport in Curitiba.

"I hadn't showered for a day or so," said Hitch, who had been traveling that long to get there. He thought: "Should I give her one of those 19 Kids and Counting side hugs?"

She hugged him before he could decide. He didn't know what she was thinking: "He's too short for me."

But she had heels on, she told herself, and 15 days to decide if they would get along well in real life.

During the trip, Tavares said, "he got sick."

"I didn't get sick," Hitch said.

They bicker frequently, but they click. And a year ago, they decided that eventually they wanted to marry.

Hitch, who sells collectibles on eBay for a living, left the National Guard over the summer and moved from Illinois to Spring Hill. The couple planned to marry a year from now, after Tavares' expected college graduation. But TLC's invitation to be part of 90 Day Fiancé, which documents engaged couples as they figure out whether they indeed will wed, changed their plans.

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"He convinced me to be on the show," Tavares said.

So she put the rest of college on hold, got a K-1 visa and moved from Brazil to Spring Hill.

She said her decision to do the show is rooted in the couple's desire to educate the public.

"Most people think (non-U.S. citizens who are engaged to Americans) come here to just get a green card," she said. But "before being a couple, we were best friends. It's hard to find this kind of connection with someone."

That's why she got engaged, she said.

Viewers of the program have their own opinions. Some have criticized Hitch for packing potato chips for a trip he took to Brazil, and for having a green swimming pool. Others criticize Tavares.

"How can that hot chick of 23 years fall in love with a guy who is 38?" Tavares read on the Internet.

But, she said, the public shouldn't draw conclusions about the couple based on what they see on TLC, which is heavily edited.

"It makes for good TV," said Ron Hitch.

Their families support their engagement, and their fans will have to be patient. TLC will reveal the relationship's fate in an upcoming episode.

In the meantime, Tavares has a request for the couple's critics:

"Let me live my life."

And Hitch has a reminder for all viewers:

"It's just a TV show."

Contact Arleen Spenceley at aspenceley@tampabay.com or (727) 869-6235. Follow @ArleenSpenceley.