Kingston Market: Love found us.

It’s an unusually hot late September midday.

The Quirky Love team is out and about, and we end up at Springer Square Market. We pass by giant heads of succulent Savoy cabbage, plus stalls of the season’s last fresh produce, and then we sit at the bench next to the fountain spray. We watch a little girl as she jumps off the high stair to the ground, arms open, small skirt billowing.

We’re looking with our intuitive eye for couples in love. We’ve been honing that eye for months now. This is our ninth pop-up. We’re looking for real love as usual.

And it smacks us in the face. Right next to the fountain, under an awning extending from an old red Dodge van with a farm license plate and a faded hint of an inscription on the front hood that reads ‘RESCUE’ backwards, stands our couple. They are hugging and smooching, managing to get lost in each other’s eyes. Yet she immediately tends to each customer that stops to look at the jars of bright yellow honey, or the vivid fresh-cut flowers on display.

Our latest pop-up couple is here as merchants at the market. Well, she’s here because of her family farm, and he’s here for her. Selling honey and flowers and all things sweet and beautiful.

They’re even sweeter up close. She’s totally shy, and he’s game for a few photos if only to make her feel at ease with us being in their faces. She clings to his side – and you’d think it’s because of the cameras – but we saw them even before they saw us, and they were doing the same thing. After four years together, these two are still so in love that it makes your heart beat faster.

So, if you spot them there next time, stop by to say hello, or buy a honey jar, or simply sit by the fountain and watch and learn about real love.