Plot twist: it’s not a boneappletea, he really was taking a bath when he saw her. Then he saw how she was reacting and just went along with the whole ‘taken aback’ thing.
I kind of love it. There is the colloquialism "to take a bath" on something, referring to accepting the losses usually in terms of money and or overspending.
So this guy kind of went full circle right back around to saying something that makes sense? Kind of?