Menelaus passed the delivery boy on his way back to the apartment. He gave him a tip he told Helen to deny him (not aware that Helen had tipped him already). "Try to get a working watch," he warned the young boy and headed upstairs. Clearly, his escape to find a cork screw had taken much more time than he'd thought.
He came back inside ready to tell her story of his adventure. It seemed as if once again fate was trying to pull them apart (or squander what time he tried to spend with her). Not only had he waited for a lousy cashier, but he'd nearly been run over by a taxi and was covered in the mud puddle it had driven through.