I'm guessing you're American. I'm a guy from The UK, while it's slightly different there's a similar but different colloquialism over here and it refers to how a male would address a female. This might sound quite odd but once you become a certain age (I'd say 18 or above) a man will generally refer to a female who he doesn't even know, as "Love", mainly in an informal setting. Like if you're in a shop and you're thanking a female shop assistant for serving you, you'd say "Thanks love".