That afternoon they had a first kiss, followed by a candlelit dinner later, with Veuve Clicquot, in the lanai.
“I didn’t notice an age difference,” she said. “We had a lot of things in common.”
Mr. Weisse described their second day together as a carbon copy of the first, even better. “We were having a ball, laughing and carrying on like a couple of school kids.”
As her departure approached, he invited her to stay longer, indefinitely. She did.
“We spent every single day together,” said Ms. Lucas, who soon began helping him around the Airbnb. She now also works as a server at Pizza Connection, an Italian restaurant, in North Fort Myers.
On July 18, they had their first official date — outdoor drinks at Anthony’s on the BLVD, an Italian seafood restaurant now closed in Cape Coral, Fla. “I found my friend,” he said. “We never stopped laughing.”
Mr. Weisse, whose previous two marriages ended in divorce, told Ms. Lucas from the get-go that he would not get married again. In September, about a week after she moved her stuff into the Airbnb, he changed his tune.
“If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it,” he said, quoting Beyoncé.
On Sept. 11, 2020, two months and three days after they met, he got down on one knee and presented her with a diamond engagement ring, around sunset in front of Chapel by the Sea on Captiva Island.
