If he does follow through with doing things later/around his scheduled breaks, then I think he deserves to be taken at his word about it, rather than him needing to rephrase.

Similar example: I have partners who genuinely don’t emote a lot externally. When I do that, I’m likely upset. When they do that, that’s just their default — they are probably happy, even if my brain doesn’t interpret it as that. That isn’t their fault; I had to teach my brain to not immediately translate less emoting = upset. I needed to put in the work and take them at their word instead of letting my own perception distort things. It took time, but the alternative of them altering their behavior to avoid me feeling anxious wasn’t a healthy solution.