A box of chocolates? Flowers? Such typical gifts when trying to impress your crush. But in both From Scratch the limited series and From Scratch the memoir by Tembi Locke, a more eccentric and personal gift goes a long way.

In this installment of Script to Screen, host Uzo Aduba recounts a pivotal moment in the relationship between Amy Wheeler (Zoe Saldaña), Locke’s onscreen counterpart, and her would-be suitor, Italian chef Lino Ortolano (Eugenio Mastrandrea). In the first episode of the show, Amy’s roommate tells her that “there’s some guy who smells like garlic downstairs waiting for you.” All but a stranger to her, Lino shows up on Amy’s doorstep the day after their first meeting with a practical present she can use while studying abroad in Florence. He presents her with a bicycle — bright red, complete with a bell and a basket.

At first, Amy balks at accepting such an extravagant gift, but Lino quickly reassures her. He didn’t buy her anything, he says — he simply “found” the bike lying around.

In the series, we watch Saldaña’s face as Amy wonders how she could possibly accept a gift from a self-professed “bicycle thief” she barely knows. In real life, Lino’s inspiration Saro courted Locke the same way. In her memoir, the same thoughts, fears and questions of trust unfurl on the page: “No man had ever heard of a need of mine in passing and manifested it days later […] Nothing comes for free.”

While there were a few tweaks made in bringing the scene to the screen, the essence of the exchange remains the same. How could Tembi, or Amy, refuse her own set of wheels, laid at her feet by a handsome stranger? Short answer: neither of them can.

After all, as Locke writes in her book, “I wanted it so badly that I had to stop from screaming right there on the sidewalk and waking the residents above.”

Watch this romantic scene and more in From Scratch, now streaming on Netflix.