Liminal Spaces: IKEA
Chloe parked in the far corner of the parking lot. The store had closed an hour ago. Only one car remained.
She headed for the staff entrance. A middle manager was waiting for her. He gave her the elevator stare - head to toe.
“So you’re the one who wants to walk around naked?” It wasn’t a question that awaited an answer. “You know the rules,” he said. “You have to be out by one. If this door closes and you’re on the outside? Tough luck.”
Chloe didn’t blink. “It is all in the agreement. Showroom tonight, self-service in two weeks. I can design a tour, we negotiate the contract.”
The manager gave her another look, this time obviously pausing at her chest, nodded and left the building closing the door behind him. Chloe stood still until his foot steps faded. Then a moment passed and an engine revved.
“Creep,” she muttered. She’d dealt with worse.
Chloe did nude tours of liminal spaces – empty stores, closed venues, after‑hours buildings. She organised permissions, signed waivers, followed rules.
Then she took a group of six to ten participants to the location after hours. They undressed and toured the location with Chloe as guide. Her idea was that being naked enhanced the eerie, surreal feel of the empty space.
IKEA had been a dream destination since day one. Large corporations were hard to get permissions from, but IKEA had been surprisingly easy when she had build up the courage to ask. Maybe because they were Swedish.
Officially she was scouting the location to get a feel for how it felt. Unofficially, she was also there to have sex with a stranger. Unknown to the manager some guy Shane would be arriving at the door in one hour.
Chloe’s husband, Greg, was a connoisseur of the naked female body. Chloe was a connoisseur of sex in strange places. They had discovered VelvetKey, a platform for structured and discreet swapping, and found that it gave the transparency to make an open marriage work so they could each enjoy their kink.
She unbuttoned her shirt as she walked. The back hallways were raw. Concrete floor and exposed pipes and cabling. She climbed the stairs to the showroom labyrinth.
2
As she entered the showroom the silence hit her. Or rather the absence of the usual noise of customers with kids. Just the humming sound of the air conditioning.
Even during opening hours IKEA had this uncanny valley of almost, but not quite like a real place. Being alone it was the extreme “almost, but uncanny” she had experienced.
She took some time to feel it. To be in it.
Quickly she found the childrens section, put her bag on a children play desk, and just browsed around for a bit. Then she texted Greg, “I was right about the manager. Creep. Remind me not to offer a tour as team building. Call you when Shane has left.”
The acknowledgment came instantly.
She undressed down to her azure lace panties and stored the bag and clothes in a cupboard.
Everything was planned. A trail of notes for Shane to find, leading him from living room, to bed room, to kitchen, and ending in the bathroom.
With her skin exposed the showroom suddenly felt cold. Her bare feet barely made any sounds hitting the floor. She imagined to walk around customers invisible.
When she was done putting the clues at the correct places, time was running out. Time to find the shower.
From the bath section, she would be able to see when Shane entered the showroom. It would take him at least five minutes to follow the trail to the bathroom. Enough time to get ready.
The door opened. Chloe moved out of sight before she could see Shane. She wanted to keep him a stranger until their eyes met.
Chloe looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. “Last chance to walk out, or at least be dressed”, she thought before pulling down the panties, leaving them on the floor. The she entered the shower stall closing the frosted glass door behind her.
3
The shower stall was not a comfortable place to wait but she persisted.
Then she heard some steps. They were almost just outside the stall when they stopped. Chloe had her back to the glass door, but he had to be able to make out her shape.
The door opened and a voice stuttered “ehh. hi”.
She turned around and met his eyes. He was a head higher than her, wild red hair, and a faded t-shirt with the name of some indie rock band. He had picked up herazure panties and held them in his hand.
“You must be Shane. Come join me,” she greeted him.
He hesitates. He’s still dressed – jeans, t-shirt, sneakers. He steps inside. It is cramped, two people in a shower stall.
Chloe gently pushes him out, “No silly. No clothes in the shower. They get wet.”
Shane pauses. The he starts laughing. “Naked here in the middle of IKEA?”
He stops for a beat while looking at her. “Okay, I’ll play along,” he says. He turns around and starts to undress.
Chloe notices that her panties end up in his pockets. The clothes just stays where it randomly lands all over the floor.
Both naked, Chloe pulls him into the shower stall and they embrace. She has to stand on her toes to reach his neck with her lips.
They stand in the embrace a bit. “Imagine the warm water running over our bodies,” Chloe whispers.
He laughs, holding his arms around her upper body. His hands on her back. Slowly the hands move down and to the front.
Almost when they reach their target, Chloe gently retreats a few inches. “Not here”, she whispers.
He stops dead, hands frozen where they are.
With a smile, Chloe continues, “No silly, shower sex is messy and crampy. Not a fan.”
She grabs his hands and quickly exits the shower. Shane is torn between reaching for his clothes and following Chloe. He decides to follow the nude Chloe.
Hastily she rushes through the bedroom section, touching a few beds. Then living room, turns around herself a few times with Shane trying to keep up.
They end in the kitchen section in a big open display kitchen. Chloe jumps onto a counter, her legs dangling. “Come, take me. Right here,” she says.
He steps between her knees. “On a kitchen counter?”
“It is an IKEA kitchen. It is designed to last,” she pulls him closer, ““Now stop thinking”. She starts kissing his neck and finally he gives in.
He kisses her neck, moves to her breasts and slowly continues down. She draw her fingers through his wild hair while he finds her. She lets out a sigh of pleasure. He is good at this, she thinks as a shiver runs through her body.
Then he straightens. Chloe tries to pull him back in. With his cock his in hand he tries to find her pussy but the angle is wrong. He pulls her from the counter and turns her around to face the counter, bent over, her breasts pressing against a wet spot. She reaches for him, leading him in.
The first few strokes are quick. Chloe makes a muffled scream of pleasure. He slows, then he stops. Still inside Chloe. Neither of them moves. Just breathing, being there. Under the spotlight in a fake kitchen in a fake home with the humming sound of an industrial ventilator.
“That was…” he starts with a chuckle.
Chloe laughs, “Weird?”
Shane slowly pulls out, then laughs himself. “Yeah, at first. But then… wow. Still weird… aware… just wow.”
Chloe turns around facing Shane. They embrace in silence and the absence of noise.
“Come, there is more to see,” Chloe wrestles loose and starts browsing around.
4
They browse around the showroom. Chloe in the lead, Shane following a few steps behind. Now and again Chloe picks up something and shows it to Shane with a comment.
He doesn’t really answers and does not really seems to be into the whole browsing IKEA nude thing. Once, Chloe catches his gaze lingering at where her ass was moments before. He has a sly smile. Is he enjoying the sight?
They end up in the restaurant. Chloe is immediately drawn to the panorama window with a view of the parking lot. Far away a car passes by in the real world.
She turns around. Shane is casually sitting on top of a table a few rows away. A safe distance from the window.
“So what do you do for a living?” she asks.
“Financial data analysis. If it sounds boring, it is because it is”, Shane answers.
She sits on the table beside him. Her leg dangles and touches his. “Have you done this a lot?”
“This? IKEA? The kitchen sex?”
The question marks hang in the air. Then he continues, “we have been doing VelvetKey hookups for a year. It has always been that one of us have a hookup at a strangers home, while the other have a hookup at ours. A string of unfamiliar living rooms and bed rooms. Actually not quite unlike IKEA, I guess”
He is silent for a bit, “I did had shower sex once. You are right about it, by the way.”
They sit in silence. Chloe decides to let him do the next step.
He stands, “it is getting late. I’ll better head home.”
5
They head back to the bathroom section. Shane’s clothes are still spread out on the floor in front of the shower stall.
Chloe sits on a display toilet and just looks at Shane getting dressed. They follow their trail back to the staff entrance. Everything happens without a word.
They embrace and Chloe gives him a quick kiss on the neck, then pulls back smiling “I think you still have something of mine. It is something blue…”
Shane looks puzzled at her.
“Yes, my panties! You put them in your pockets.”
Shane puts his hands in his pockets and looks genuinly surprised as he pulls out the lace panties. “Sorry I forgot. Didn’t mean to…”
“No, but I like them back.” She puts on hand if her chest and covers up with the other. “I am still naked as you see,” she smirks.
With a sweet laugh, she picks the panties from his hands and embrace him again.
Shane shakes his head and opens the door to exit. “Are all your dates like this? Weird, different? In a good way, though”.
“At least you got a fun story to tell,” she says. The she adds, “…for your wife.” He nods slowly.
She looks after him as he enter his car. “You almost got it. Some day you might even understand,” she whispers after him.
Then she returns to the showroom with her panties in her hand.
6
Chloe finds the children section again. The bag with her clothes are still in the cupboard where she put it earlier. She grabs her phone, throws the panties over the back of a play chair and sits on a bed.
The bed covers are pink with pink princesses on. Everything around her is pink. Very girly. She had never really been a pink girl.
She grabs a stuffed shark, cuddles it, takes a selfie, and sends it to Greg.
“Shane has left the building - He almost stole my panties. Now I am alone with Blåhaj. Will explore for a while before heading home.”
Greg answers “I liked Mark, your date at the pool, better. Enjoy yourself”.
She stays on the princess bed just observing her surroundings. She looks at the azure lace panties draped over the pink play chair. It was inappropriately out of place, almost comedic.
She smiles. Take it as a challenge. She walks around in the princess room. On a shelf she found a teddy bear and put the panties on his paws.
She steps back. Adjusts the bear’s paw, posing it as if he was sniffing the panties. Steps back again. Nods.
Her azure lace panties, quite visible on display in the pink children bedroom. She smiles for herself, then walks through the different displays.
In the office section, she tries some office chairs. Spins around. Has a office chair race down the coridor - she wins.
She spreads out on the larges bed in the bed section. Arms and legs wide apart, staring at the ceiling. Imagines she is part of the display with customers walking by as everything was ordinary.
Finds a table in the dining section. Performs her best porn pose on it. Holds it, then collapses on the table laughing. She catches her breath sprawled out face against the table.
Leaving the table, she notices the faint outline of her body. She smiles, considers clearly drawing, with her fingers, where her pussy had been. Decides against it.
As she passes through the kitchen section, she notices the counter they had their fun at. It was still wet where she had been sitting. She grabs a paper towel from the display dispenser and wipes it down. No streaks. No evidence. Then she moves on.
She returns to the childrens section and smiles at the sight of her panties on display.
She grabs the bag with her clothes. Considers the panty-display for a moment, before she grabs them and puts them in the bag. Then she heads for the staff entrance.
She opens the door outside, still naked. No-one in sight. She pauses, steps out, and let the door shut behind her.
She spins around looking. Trying to see the boundary between her and the real world. The real world where you need clothes.
She enters her car naked. Feel the cold seat, the pedals on her bare feet. She looks at IKEA in her mirror. In two weeks she will be back for the self-service warehouse.
Then she texts Greg, “Leaving now. Can’t wait to hear everything about Sarah’s body.”
She starts the car without waiting for an answer.