Two hours later, Yvonne sat in her apartment, having switched her formal clothes for comfortable jeans and shirt, moodily slurping on a coffee. 

"You think they'll still hire you?" 

Despite her gloomy mood, the girl had to stifle a laugh and raised an eyebrow at the girl sitting on the other end of the kitchen table: the same girl who'd barged in and ruined her job interview.

"What do you think? The department chief nearly got an heart attack. Honestly, I didn't think he'd ever stop screaming!" 

"Yeah, but the personnel manager's aide seemed to take it rather astride, didn't she? She was smirking all the time." 

Yvonne rolled her eyes. "Sure she was, but it's her boss who's calling the shots. And that he had security throw us out doesn't seem to me that he found it just as funny as her. Not... really." 

The other girl winced. "I guess so. Still..." Curiously she eyed Yvonne her voice trailing off for a moment. "...why did you wear me as your blouse? You were the one who Venned me into it, so you should have known that the three months were over." 

Yvonne squirmed a bit in her seat, playing with her mug. Then she sighed. "I think..." she finally said, "...I lost track."

"You... lost track?



" 

"Yeah!" Yvonne snorted. "I confused you... um, what's your name again, by the way? I know it's rude, but you've been part of my wardrobe for the last three months, and I usually don't name my clothes..." 

"Oh, that's fine. It would be the same for me. Anyway, I'm Stephanie. But you were saying...?" 

"Ah, right, Stephanie. Yeah, you know... there's this other blouse, errr, girl, in my wardrobe, and it... she's also Stephanie. So I seemed to have confused you two." 

Stephanie laughed brightly. "Two blouses, both Venned girls of the same name? What a coincidence! But... it can't be that hard to keep the origin of two pieces of clothing straight... right? After all... you only have these two...?" Her eyes narrowed in speculation as Yvonne suddenly seemed to squirm on her seat. "Or are there more...?" The other girl nodded. "Much more...?" Another nod. "Okay... how many more...?" 

Yvonne took a deep breath. "Weeeell..." she said long-drawn out. "I'm a bit of a Venn-fan. And I know lots of people who are, too. And since I usually care for my stuff, you know, hand-washing, hand-polishing and so on, I get quite a few volunteers from among my friends. And then there are the ones who I meet in the mall and who volunteer for being Venned by me because I look so nice and trustworthy, just like you. In fact-" 

The other girl cut her short. "How many?" She asked forcefully. 

Wrinkles appeared on Yvonne's head as she seemed to think intensely. "Um, there's two dresses, a skirt, this other blouse, at least several pieces of underwear, a pair of plush-slippers, the gold fish in the bowl, this painting behind you at the wall, my shampoo, at least one of the condoms in my purse, the potted plant in the living room - that one is actually a really funny story, because-" 

"Stooop!" Wide-eyed, Stephanie interrupted the seemingly unending enumeration. "My God - you may well be decimating mankind. I've NEVER met anyone who's had more than two or three Venned things among his or her household. But-" she chuckled, "I well understand your problem know. Keeping track of what changes back when must be a pain in the ass." 

Yvonne put on a pained smile and produced a small notebook. "I'm using this notebook to keep track, but this isn't the first time something has gone awry." 

Impressed, Stephanie eyed the many, densely written sheets. "Yeah, I can guess. Keeping track is probably really a nuisance... and error-prone. Isn't there an app for that?" 

"An app?" Yvonne regarded her with a wondrous look on her face. "Funny that you ask. No, there isn't. Believe me, I searched for one. I'd even thought about creating my own, but I have no clue about programming. I'm a media designer, not a software engineer. I make software look shiny, not make it work, otherwise I'd probably already have patched something together." 

Suddenly, there was a speculative sparkle in the other girl's eyes. "Actually... I am a software engineer. And I have experience in writing apps." 

"You have?" 

Stephanie nodded rigorously. "Yep, I'm currently doing a sabbatical because I was fed up with my old job, with being bossed around by retard superiors and being assigned bullshit tasks. But now that I think about it... why don't we put ourselves together? I'm sure there's a huuuuge market for Venn-related apps. We could call them... let's see... Venn-Apps! Vapps for short! You'd do the design, I'd make the program work. We'd be our own bosses and who knows, maybe we'll become billionaires eventually. We only have to find an investor and some more staff... I for myself have no frigging clue of running a company!" 

Yvonne chuckled. "Don't get ahead of yourself. Still, I think that's a cool idea. There really are next-to-no Venn-related apps around. Aside from that google maps plugin which lets you locate the machines themselves. So this may be an untapped market. A giant, untapped market, just waiting to be developed." By now, the promise of opportunity was glittering brightly behind her eyes. "And getting additional staff may not be a problem. In fact..." 

Curiously, Stephanie looked after her host as the woman got up from the table and disappeared around the corner, only to reappear with a pair of outrageously high heels. 

"Here, try them on." 

Confused by the apparent non-sequitur, Stephanie obeyed, soon teetering in the pair. "So?" she said while she took a few steps. "These are nice, although a bit high. So...?" 

"Well they are, aren't they?" Yvonne smiled sweetly. "And they are awesomely comfy, right? When have you worn shoes that comfy the last time...?" 

"When I pranked my little sister by turning her into my shoes for this wedding she didn't want to attend- oh!" Startled, she stared at her feet. "These are Venned?" 

"Yip." Yvonne grinned. "They used to be a middle-aged gentleman who has more than enough money to support our little start-up. He just wanted to take a little break from life. I only had to promise him that I'd only wear him on smooth surfaces. Like the parquet here in my apartment. Or the dancing floor in my favorite club. So there's our start-up money. And now-" she raised her notebook "-comes the rest. You're a special case because I met you directly in front of the Venn Machine and immediately changed you without asking questions, but usually I keep track of the occupation and names of all the people I change, so here we go..." 

Amused, Stephanie took her seat again. For a moment she contemplated taking off the heels, but Yvonne had been right. They were indeed comfortable, heel or no heel. Plus they made her legs look good. And so she simply crossed her legs and observed Yvonne while she scurried through the house, bringing together all kinds of different items on the table. "And that's supposed to help us in founding a company?" she asked mockingly while lifting a dark blue swimming suit with two clenched fingers. 

"Hey, put down our legal consultant!" Yvonne replied with feigned outrage, but her large grin betrayed how she really felt. "In fact, here we have..." She pointed at a purse and a coffee mug "...two more programmers..." the finger continued its journey to a golden cat statue, a confused looking gold fish in a bowl and a lacy bra "...marketing, accounting, purchase..." and finally, the finger stopped at a vibrator "...and human resources. Anything else we need?" 

"How about a software tester?" If Stephanie had any doubts about an HR manager who was part time sex toy, she didn't let it show. 

"Hm, software test..." Yvonne consulted her book again. "I'm sure I remember someone doing this. Let's see... ah, here!" Grinning she looked up. "Could you please stand up for a moment...? Yeah, thank you!" With a fluid motion, the girl grabbed the cushion Stephanie had been sitting on and deposited on the kitchen table as well. "And one software tester presto. So that's it. We're complete." 

"So you think they'll participate?" 

Yvonne chuckled. "Absolutely. If I remember correctly, most are like you. Fed up with their jobs, in serious need of a break... I'm sure they'll jump at the opportunity of conceiving their own company. At least most of them will. And if not..." She waved at the furnishing of her kitchen again, "I still have a considerable recruitment pool to choose from."

Stephanie laughed while looking at the pile. "This must be one of the craziest company foundations ever. But..." mischief sparkled in her eyes, "...something tells me that it may also be one of the most successful!"